Endocervical pathogens in women with preterm and term labour

The purpose of this study was to compare the endocervical microflora of women in preterm and term labour and to determine whether the presence of a specific microflora is significantly associated with preterm labor. A prospective study was performed in Lithuania among 212 women in preterm labour (latent phase, n = 110; active phase, n = 102) and among 62 healthy women in term labour. Microbiological assessment included cultures for aerobic bacteria, yeasts, and Trichomonas vaginalis and direct immunofluorescence reaction for Chlamydia trachomatis, Escherichia coli (odds ratio 8.16; 95% confidence interval 1.27-340.23) and Staphylococcus aureus (odds ratio 7.79; 95% confidence interval 1.21-325.40) were significantly more often isolated from women in preterm than from women in term labour. The prevalence of C. trachomatis was the same in the preterm and in the term labour group. The pregnancy outcome during the latent or active phase of preterm labour with or without C. trachomatis infection did not differ. It is concluded that E. coli and S. aureus are significantly more prevalent in endocervical cultures from Lithuanian women in preterm than from those in term labour.     

Relaxin and Erythropoietin Significantly Reduce Uterine Tissue Damage during Experimental Ischemia–Reperfusion Injury

Successful uterus transplantation, a potential treatment method for women suffering from absolute uterine infertility, is negatively affected by ischemia–reperfusion injury (IRI). The aim of this study is to investigate the protective effect of relaxin (RLX) or/and erythropoietin (EPO) on experimental uterus IRI. Eighty rats, randomly assigned into eight groups (n = 10/group), were pretreated with either saline, 5 μg/kg human relaxin-2, 4000 IU/kg recombinant human erythropoietin or their combination. Ischemia was achieved by clamping the aorta and ovarian arteries for 60 min, following 120 min of reperfusion and tissue sampling. For sham animals, clamping was omitted during surgery. There were no differences in tissue histological score, malondialdehyde (MDA) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) levels, myeloperoxidase (MPO) and TUNEL-positive cell count between all sham-operated rats. Pretreatment with RLX preserved normal tissue morphology, reduced MDA levels, MPO and TUNEL-positive cell count, preserved SOD activity and upregulated NICD and HES1 gene expression when compared to the control group. Pretreatment with EPO reduced MDA levels. In conclusion, pretreatment with RLX, EPO or a combination of both EPO and RLX significantly alleviates uterine tissue damage caused by IRI.     

Cardiomyogenic Differentiation Potential of Human Dilated Myocardium-Derived Mesenchymal Stem/Stromal Cells: The Impact of HDAC Inhibitor SAHA and Biomimetic Matrices

Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is the most common type of nonischemic cardiomyopathy characterized by left ventricular or biventricular dilation and impaired contraction leading to heart failure and even patients’ death. Therefore, it is important to search for new cardiac tissue regenerating tools. Human mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (hmMSCs) were isolated from post-surgery healthy and DCM myocardial biopsies and their differentiation to the cardiomyogenic direction has been investigated in vitro. Dilated hmMSCs were slightly bigger in size, grew slower, but had almost the same levels of MSC-typical surface markers as healthy hmMSCs. Histone deacetylase (HDAC) activity in dilated hmMSCs was 1.5-fold higher than in healthy ones, which was suppressed by class I and II HDAC inhibitor suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA) showing activation of cardiomyogenic differentiation-related genes alpha-cardiac actin (ACTC1) and cardiac troponin T (TNNT2). Both types of hmMSCs cultivated on collagen I hydrogels with hyaluronic acid (HA) or 2-methacryloyloxyethyl phosphorylcholine (MPC) and exposed to SAHA significantly downregulated focal adhesion kinase (PTK2) and activated ACTC1 and TNNT2. Longitudinal cultivation of dilated hmMSC also upregulated alpha-cardiac actin. Thus, HDAC inhibitor SAHA, in combination with collagen I-based hydrogels, can tilt the dilated myocardium hmMSC toward cardiomyogenic direction in vitro with further possible therapeutic application in vivo.     

Cause–consequence analysis of non-repairable phased missions

Many systems can be modelled as a mission made up of a sequence of discrete phases. Each phase has a different requirement for successful completion and mission failure will result if any phase is unsuccessful. Fault tree analysis and Markov techniques have been used previously to model this type of system for non-repairable and repairable systems, respectively. Cause–consequence analysis is an alternative assessment technique capable of modelling all system outcomes on one logic diagram. The structure of the diagram has been shown to have advantageous features in both its representation of the system failure logic and its subsequent quantification, which could be applied to phased mission analysis.This paper outlines the use of the cause–consequence diagram method for systems undergoing non-repairable phased missions. Methods for construction of the cause–consequence diagram are first considered. The disjoint nature of the resulting diagram structure can be utilised in the later quantification process. The similarity with the Binary Decision Diagram method enables the use of efficient and accurate solution routines.