Introduction Antiphospholipid antibodies (aPLs) can promote thrombosis in vivo , but evidence from both animal models and clinical data suggests that they act as a ‘first hit’ and may require a ‘second hit’, typically an inflammatory stimulus, to induce thrombus formation. This study aimed to investigate…
Abstract Background Ewing’s sarcoma is a childhood bone and soft tissue cancer with poor prognosis. Treatment outcomes for Ewing’s sarcoma patients have improved only modestly over the past decades, making the development of new treatment strategies paramount. In this study, the combined targeting of…
Background: Ewing’s sarcoma is a childhood bone and soft tissue cancer with poor prognosis. Treatment outcomes for Ewing’s sarcoma patients have improved only modestly over the past decades, making the development of new treatment strategies paramount. In this study, the combined targeting of ribonucleotide…
Background: Pregnant women represent a vulnerable group in pharmaceutical research due to limited knowledge about drug metabolism and safety of commonly used corticosteroids like prednisone due to ethical and practical constraints. Current preclinical models, including animal studies, fail to accurately…
Hämatopoetische Stammzellen (HSCs) sind multipotente Zellen, die in der Lage sind, das hämatopoetische System lebenslang zu erneuern. Dieses Potenzial wird bei der Stammzelltransplantation therapeutisch genutzt. Der Erfolg einer Transplantation hängt dabei nicht unwesentlich von der Zahl der transplantierten…
Research question Do microRNAs (miRNAs) play a role in regulating endoplasmic reticulum stress (ERS) and unfolded protein response (UPR) in decidualized cells and endometrium associated with reproductive failures? Design Endometrial stromal cell line St-T1b was decidualized in vitro with 8-Br-cAMP over…
Molecular communication between a pathogen and its host is crucial for a successful interplay. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) act as mediators for the delivery of molecular signals among pathogens or between pathogens and the host. Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii), an intracellular parasite with a worldwide…
Antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) is an autoimmune disease driven by a wide group of autoantibodies primarily directed against phospholipid-binding proteins (antiphospholipid antibodies). APS is defined by two main kinds of clinical manifestations: vascular thrombosis and pregnancy-related morbidity. In…
Placenta accreta spectrum (PAS) is one of the major causes of maternal morbidity and mortality worldwide with increasing incidence. PAS refers to a group of pathological conditions ranging from the abnormal attachment of the placenta to the uterus wall to its perforation and, in extreme cases, invasion…
Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic inflammatory autoimmune disease of unknown cause, which mainly affects women of childbearing age, especially between 15 and 55 years of age. During pregnancy, SLE is associated with a high risk of perinatal morbidity and mortality. Among the most frequent…
The concept of biological identity has been traditionally a central issue in immunology. The assumption that entities foreign to a specific organism should be rejected by its immune system, while self-entities do not trigger an immune response is challenged by the expanded immunotolerance observed in…
Extracellular vesicles (EVs), including small EVs (sEVs), are involved in neuroinflammation and neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Yet, increased neuroinflammation can also be detected in the aging brain, and it is associated…
Abstract Purpose Several roles are attributed to the myometrium including sperm and embryo transport, menstrual discharge, control of uterine blood flow, and labor. Although being a target of diabetes complications, the influence of high glucose on this compartment has been poorly investigated. Both…
Epithelial membrane proteins (EMP1-3) are involved in epithelial differentiation and carcinogenesis. Dysregulated expression of EMP2 was observed in various cancers, but its role in human lung cancer is not yet clarified. In this study, we analyzed the expression of EMP1-3 and investigated the biological…
IL-36 cytokines (the agonists IL-36α, IL-36β, IL-36γ, and the antagonist IL-36Ra) are expressed in the mouse uterus and associated with maternal immune response during pregnancy. Here, we characterize the expression of IL-36 members in human primary trophoblast cells (PTC) and trophoblastic cell lines…
The IL-36 subfamily of cytokines has been recently described as part of the IL-1 superfamily. It comprises three pro-inflammatory agonists (IL-36α, IL-36β, and IL-36γ), their receptor (IL-36R), and one antagonist (IL-36Ra). Although expressed in a variety of cells, the biological relevance of IL-36 cytokines…
Human beings are not very fertile and the main reason seems to be dysregulation during the blastocyst implantation. This process is controlled by several molecules and their dysregulation can result in miscarries, pre-eclampsia or choriocarcinoma. One of those molecules is LIF. In this thesis, two review…