PloS one

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the association between endometriosis and chronic endometritis. METHODS: Endometrial specimens were obtained from 71 patients, 34 with endometriosis (endometriosis group) and 37 without endometriosis (non-endometrios…

BACKGROUND: Guidelines recommend Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) diagnosis and management in primary care with minimal investigations; however little evidence exists regarding risk of organic gastrointestinal conditions following diagnosis o…

Transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) is believed to play a major role in the aetiology of peritoneal endometriosis. We aimed to determine if the peritoneum is a source of TGF-β and if peritoneal TGF-β expression, reception or target genes a…

Several studies aimed to disentangle whether pregnancy influences the growth of uterine fibroids but results were inconsistent. In this study, we speculated that fibroid enlargement during pregnancy may not be linear and we hypothesized tha…

Quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) is a powerful and reproducible method of gene expression analysis in which expression levels are quantified by normalization against reference genes. Therefore, to investigate the potential biomarkers and t…

PURPOSE: The tumor suppressor p53 is known to be inactivated frequently in various cancers. In addition, germline polymorphisms in TP53 are known to affect protein function and influence risk of developing different types of cancers. In thi…

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the urothelial dysfunction and inflammation of urinary bladder in patients with upper urinary tract (UUT) urolithiasis through the results of cystoscopic hydrodistension and immunohistochemistry study. METHODS: N…

BACKGROUND: Til date, none of the diagnostic techniques available for the detection of female genital tuberculosis (FGTB) are 100% accurate. We therefore, proposed to use the endometrial tissue biopsies (ETBs), ovarian tissue biopsies (OTBs…

CDX2, a master transcriptional regulator of intestinal cell differentiation and survival, has been used as a marker to indicate colorectal lineage in adenocarcinomas of unknown origin. Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is one of the m…

INTRODUCTION: Spermatogenesis is a highly complex process involving several thousand genes, only a minority of which have been studied in infertile men. In a previous study, we identified a number of Copy Number Variants (CNVs) by high-reso…

BackgroundHealth Technology Assessments (HTAs) are used to inform decision-making and their usefulness depends on the quality and relevance of research and specific studies for health-policy decisions. Little is known about the country of o…

BACKGROUND: Candidate gene prioritization aims to identify promising new genes associated with a disease or a biological process from a larger set of candidate genes. In recent years, network-based methods - which utilize a knowledge networ…

Long chain alkylphenols are man-made compounds still present in industrial and agricultural processes. Their main use is domestic and they are widespread in household products, cleansers and cosmetics, leading to a global environmental and …

The emergence of high-throughput protein quantification methodologies has enabled the comprehensive characterization by longitudinal and cross-sectional studies of biological fluids under physiological and pathological conditions. In partic…

Ovarian clear cell adenocarcinoma (CCC) is the second most common subtype of ovarian cancer after high-grade serous adenocarcinomas. CCC tends to develop resistance to the standard platinum-based chemotherapy, and has a poor prognosis when …

Endometriosis affects approximately 10% of young, reproductive-aged women. Disease associated pelvic pain; infertility and sexual dysfunction have a significant adverse clinical, social and financial impact. As precise disease etiology has …

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have suggested that melatonin may produce antinociception through peripheral and central mechanisms. Based on the preliminary encouraging results of studies of the effects of melatonin on pain modulation, the im…

The progesterone receptor (PgR), a sex steroid hormone receptor that binds progesterone is critical for normal breast development. The PgR (+331G/A, rs10895068) promoter polymorphism is associated with cancer risk possibly by altering the e…

BACKGROUND: Recent evidence suggests that the IL-33/IL1RL1 axis plays a critical role in several autoimmune and inflammatory disorders; however, its mechanistic role in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) has not been clearly defined. We inves…

BACKGROUND: Microscopic colitis (MC) is a disease manifested by diarrhoea and is divided into collagenous and lymphocytic colitis. The aetiology is unknown, but auto-immunity is suggested. Auto-antibodies have been only rarely examined in t…

BACKGROUND: Although the etiology of bladder pain syndrome/interstitial cystitis (BPS/IC) is still unclear, a common theme with BPS/IC patients is comorbid disorders which are related to the autonomic nervous system that connects the nervou…

BACKGROUND: Bone morphogenetic protein receptor I B (BMPR1B) is a transmembrane receptor mediating TGF-β signal transduction. Recent studies indicate a tumor suppressor role for BMPR1B in ovarian cancer. Polymorphism at BMPR1B 3'UTR within …

BACKGROUND: A large number of infertile couples are choosing Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) as an adjuvant therapy to improve their success when undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF). There is no systematic review to evaluate the impact of…

BACKGROUND: Estrogen (E2) and progesterone (P4) are key players in the maturation of the human endometrium. The corresponding steroid hormone modulators, tamoxifen (TAM) and mifepristone (RU486) are widely used in breast cancer therapy and …

Ovarian cancer is the fourth most common cause of cancer deaths among women, and chronic alcoholism may exert co-carcinogenic effects. Because melatonin (mel) has oncostatic properties, we aimed to investigate and characterize the chemical …