The frequency of chromosomal anomalies in spermatozoa appears to increase with male age. Because these anomalies play a role in the etiology of spontaneous abortion, an influence of paternal age on risk of spontaneous abortion is plausible but not established. The aim was to characterize this influence in a prospective study among 5,121 California women, who as members of a prepaid health plan ...

STUDY QUESTION Does intrauterine biosynthesis of estrogen play an important role in early pregnancy by altering the function of uterine natural killer (uNK) cells? SUMMARY ANSWER Estrogens directly regulate the function of human uNK cells by increasing uNK cell migration and secretion of uNK cell-derived chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 2 (CCL2) that critically facilitates uNK-mediated angiogenes...

BACKGROUND The basic mechanisms of trophoblast invasion are not completely understood. This may be due to the lack of suitable in vitro models which enable experimental modulation of this complex process. In the present study, a three-dimensional co-culture model is used for comparing two factors considered to be implicated in the regulation of trophoblast invasion, the expression of HLA-G and ...

INTRODUCTION The labor at term finishes normal pregnancy. Both labor at term and first trimester spontaneous abortion are connected with increasing cytotoxic immune response within decidua. Th1 cytokines including IL-2 and INF-gamma are able to exert an effect on HPA axis and result in ACTH secretion. Oxytocinase serum level during pregnancy rises with the fetal development and arrest of oxytoc...

To elucidate the mechanism of suppression of prostaglandin (PG) production in decidua in early pregnancy, the PG synthetase activity of decidua and mid-secretory endometrium was studied. The microsomal fractions and their supernatants were prepared from the tissue by ultracentrifugation at 105,000 g. The standard incubation mixture consisted of the microsomal fraction and 14C arachidonic acid w...

OBJECTIVE There are no well-defined findings about reasons for first trimester abortion in some pregnancy cases. Selectins are cell adhesion proteins which are important for blastocyst implantation in the decidua. The goal of the study was to investigate the role of selectins in first trimester pregnancy loss by immunohistochemistry. STUDY DESIGN Decidual and placental tissue samples have bee...

AIM Human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) is produced by fetal trophoblast cells and secreted into maternal circulation mainly in the first trimester of pregnancy. Another glycoprotein, glycodelin A, is one of the main products of the maternal decidua during this period. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of glycodelin A on hCG release by isolated cytotrophoblast cells in vitr...

AIMS Retained placenta (RP) is a major cause of obstetric haemorrhage. The aim of the study was to obtain a better understanding of the mechanisms that cause some placentas to become retained, while most are not. METHODS 23 RPs clinically diagnosed as placenta adhesiva and 10 control placentas (CPs) were examined for differences in trophoblast fusion into multinucleated trophoblastic giant ce...

OBJECTIVE There is no data on which is more important for the intensity of intra-amniotic inflammation (IAI) between total grade or involved anatomical region in acute histologic chorioamnionitis (acute-HCA) of preterm-gestations. The objective of current study is to examine this issue. METHODS The intensity of IAI was measured by amniotic fluid (AF) white blood cell (WBC) count and matrix me...

During the first trimester of human pregnancy, Natural Killer (NK) cells of the maternal uterine mucosa (e.g. decidua) have a unique phenotype and are involved in crucial physiological processes during pregnancy. We investigated whether modifications of the NK receptor repertoire occur during the first trimester of pregnancy. We found significantly decreased expression of KIR2DL1/S1 and KIR2DL2...