Publications by authors named "Zhen-Shan Yang"

(1) Background: Inflammatory responses are implicated in embryo implantation, decidualization, pregnancy maintenance and labor. Both embryo implantation and decidualization are essential to successful pregnancy in rodents and primates. S100A6 is involved in inflammation, tumor development, apoptosis and calcium homeostasis.

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Research Question: Decidualization is critical to the establishment of mouse normal pregnancy. The fibroblast-like stromal cells in the process form polyploid multinucleated cells. Aurora kinase B (Aurora B) has previously been shown to regulate polyploidy in various cells.

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Decidualization is a process in which endometrial stromal fibroblasts differentiate into specialized secretory decidual cells and essential for the successful establishment of pregnancy. The underlying mechanism during decidualization still remains poorly defined. Because decidualization and fibroblast activation share similar characteristics, this study was to examine whether fibroblast activation is involved in decidualization.

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Introduction: High-mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) is a non-histone nuclear protein and can be extracellularly secreted to induce sterile inflammation. Although uterine deletion of HMGB1 causes implantation and decidualization defects, how secreted HMGB1 is involved in mouse early pregnancy is still unknown.

Methods: Mouse models, mouse primary endometrial cells and human endometrial cell lines were used in this study.

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Embryo implantation, a crucial step in human reproduction, is tightly controlled by estrogen and progesterone (P) via estrogen receptor alpha and progesterone receptor (PGR), respectively. Here, we report that -methyladenosine (mA), the most abundant mRNA modification in eukaryotes, plays an essential role in embryo implantation through the maintenance of P signaling. Conditional deletion of methyltransferase-like 3 (), encoding the mA writer METTL3, in the female reproductive tract using a Cre mouse line with promoter () resulted in complete implantation failure due to pre-implantation embryo loss and defective uterine receptivity.

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Myometrium plays critical roles in multiple processes such as embryo spacing through peristalsis during mouse implantation, indicating vital roles of smooth muscle in the successful establishment and quality of implantation. Actin, a key element of cytoskeleton structure, plays an important role in the movement and contraction of smooth muscle cells (SMCs). However, the function of peri-implantation uterine smooth muscle and the regulation mechanism of muscle tension are still unclear.

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Decidualization is essential to the establishment of pregnancy in rodents and primates. Laminin A5 (encoding by ) is a member of the laminin family, which is mainly expressed in the basement membranes. Although laminins regulate cellular phenotype maintenance, adhesion, migration, growth, and differentiation, the expression, function, and regulation of laminin A5 during early pregnancy are still unknown.

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There are around 300 million adolescent pregnancies worldwide, accounting for 11% of all births worldwide. Accumulating evidence demonstrates that many adverse perinatal outcomes are associated with adolescent pregnancies. However, how and why these abnormalities occur remain to be defined.

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Embryo implantation involves a sterile inflammatory reaction that is required for the invasion of the blastocyst into the decidua. Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) released from stressed or injured cells acts as an important signaling molecule to regulate many key physiological events, including sterile inflammation. We found that the amount of ATP in the uterine luminal fluid of mice increased during the peri-implantation period, and this depended on the presence of an embryo.

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Local renin-angiotensin system (RAS) in female reproductive system is involved in many physiological and pathological processes, such as follicular development, ovarian angiogenesis, ovarian, and endometrial cancer progress. However, studies on the functional relevance of RAS in human endometrium are limited, especially for renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS). In this study, we defined the location of RAS components in human endometrium.

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Decidualization is essential for successful pregnancy in rodents and primates. Although L-Tryptophan and its metabolites are essential for mammalian pregnancy, the underlying mechanism is poorly defined. We explored effects of tryptophan and kynurenine on human in vitro decidualization in human endometrial stromal cell line and primary endometrial stromal cells.

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Glucocorticoids (GCs) are essential for mouse embryo implantation and decidualization. Excess GCs are harmful for mouse embryo implantation and decidualization. 11β-Hydroxysteroid dehydrogenases type I and II (Hsd11b1/Hsd11b2) are main enzymes for regulating local level of GCs.

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By using emergy indices of urban metabolisms, this paper analyzed 31 Chinese urban metabolisms' systematic structures and characteristics in 2000 and 2010. The results showed that Chinese urban metabolisms were characterized as resource consumption and coastal external dependency. Non-renewable resource emergy accounted for a higher proportion of the total emergy in the inland cities' urban metabolisms.

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