Reproductive Immunology

Regulatory T cells (Treg cells) are an important area of investigation in human health and disease. In this study, the trajectory of percentage of Treg cells (defined as CD4+CD25+Foxp3+CD127lymphocytes) was measured in the blood of 208 women during pregnancy and up to 3 additional times in the postpartum period (1, 6 and 12 months postpartum). Whether the trajectory was affected by gravidity, parity, neonatal sex, pet exposure, maternal atopic and asthma status, smoking, maternal race or other pregnancy factors was examined. Multilevel models were fit using full maximum likelihood methods and included both random and fixed effects. Overall, percentages of Treg cells increased from the prenatal to the postpartum period. Among women who were not atopic, nulliparous women had lower percentages of Treg cells over time compared with parous women. Atopic women with pets in the home during pregnancy had lower percentages of Treg cells than atopic women who did not have pets. The trajectory was not affected by the other factors investigated. We conclude that within-woman change in percentages of Treg cells may vary by time in relation to delivery, as well as by maternal atopic status and exposure to pets and number of prior births. The data did not indicate an overall decline in Treg cells in the postpartum period. Future work to better identify the role of Treg cells in successful pregnancy would ideally include a set of well characterized women sampled serially starting prior to pregnancy and throughout the postpartum period.

Chlamydia trachomatis sexually transmitted infection can cause serious reproductive morbidities. This study determined the prevalence of serum IgG response to C. trachomatis putative stress response proteins in females to test for an association with genital tract pathology. There was no significant association of serum IgG to HtrA, Tsp, or RseP with infection or pathology. cHSP60 serum IgG prevalence was significantly associated with infection compared to negative (infertile) controls (p = 0.002), but not with upper genital tract pathology. Serum IgG1-4 antibody subclasses reactive with the antigens was not significantly different between cohorts, although different responses to each antigen were detected.

In 50% of recurrent miscarriages (RM) the cause remains unknown and standardized immunological diagnosis and treatment of idiopathic RM (iRM) is yet not established. In this prospective case-control study, out of 220 RM patients screened, 97 iRM patients were identified and compared to 26 healthy controls without a previous pregnancy or blood transfusion in order to identify deregulated immunological parameters. Blood levels of lymphocyte subpopulations, cytokines and neopterin were determined by FACS, ELISA, and Luminex technique. Lymphocyte function was studied by in-vitro lympocyte proliferation tests. As compared to controls, patients had significantly higher proportions of activated CD3+DR+, CD4+DR+ and CD8+DR+ lymphocytes, elevated levels of neopterin and a lower in-vitro proliferation of lymphocytes (all p<0.05). Within the iRM patients higher proportions of CD3+DR+ T-lymphocytes correlated with higher proportions and absolute numbers of CD4+DR+ and CD8+DR+ T-lymphocytes a...

Citation Moravej A, Jeddi‐Tehrani M, Salek‐Moghaddam AR, Dokouhaki P, Ghods R, Rabbani H, Kazemi‐Sefat GE, Shahbazi M, Zarnani AH. Evaluation of thyroglobulin expression in murine reproductive organs during pregnancy. Am J Reprod Immunol 2010; 64: 97–103Problem  In pregnant women with antithyroglobulin antibody, prevalence of abortion is 2–4 fold higher compared to normal controls. Direct effect of such harmful autoantibodies on female reproductive organs may serve a role in pregnancy loss.Method of study  Expression of thyroglobulin in decidua, placenta, and ovary of pregnant Balb/c mice ((Balb/c×Balb/c and Balb/c×C57BL/6) during early, middle, and late stages of pregnancy was evaluated. Expression of thyroglobulin was investigated in these tissues by semi‐quantitative RT‐PCR. In addition, polyclonal antithyroglobulin antibody was produced, and expression of thyroglobulin protein in aforesaid tissues was evaluated by immunohistochemistry and dot‐blot analysis.Results  The results s...

Referring to two recent publications, we here propose that clinical reproductive immunology has for decades stagnated because reproductive medicine, including assisted reproduction (AR), has failed to accept embryo implantation as an immune system-driven process, dependent on establishment of maternal tolerance toward the implanting fetal semi-allograft (and complete allograft in cases of oocyte donation). Pregnancy represents a biologically unique period of temporary (to the period of gestation restricted) tolerance, otherwise only known in association with parasitic infections. Rather than investigating the immune pathways necessary to induce this rather unique state of tolerance toward the rapidly growing parasitic antigen load of the fetus, the field, instead, concentrated on irrelevant secondary immune phenomena (i.e., "immunological noise"). It, therefore, does not surprise that interesting recent research, offering new potential insights into maternal tolerance duri...

The clinical and biochemical features of postpartum thyroid disease were analysed in 152 antithyroid peroxidase antibody-positive (anti-TPO + ve) women and compared with 239 anti-TPO-ve agematched control postpartum women. All were assessed monthly for up to 12 months postpartum. Seventy three anti-TPO + ve women developed postpartum thyroiditis (PPT): 19.2% hyperthyroid alone, 49.3% hypothyroid alone, and 31.5% characterized by hyper-followed by hypothyroidism. None of the antibody-negative women developed any thyroid dysfunction. A significant increase in many of eleven symptoms of hypothyroidism and some of eight symptoms of hyperthyroidism compared to control women was observed in all anti-TPO+ ve women, independent of thyroid status. This was particularly seen in women who later developed PPT when they were euthyroid, but was also observed in euthyroid anti-TPO+ ve women who showed no decline of thyroid function during the postpartum period. Although PPT is usually transient, this condition, and the euthyroid antibody-positive state, may be associated with significant symptomatology, including an increased incidence of minor to moderate depression. Early recognition of this syndrome by antenatal screening of thyroid antibodies may contribute to improved management of women during the postpartum period.

STUDY QUESTION What is the recommended management for medically assisted reproduction (MAR) in patients with a viral infection or disease, based on the best available evidence in the literature? SUMMARY ANSWER The ESHRE guideline on MAR in patients with a viral infection/disease makes 78 recommendations on prevention of horizontal and vertical transmission before, during and after MAR, and the impact on its outcomes, and these also include recommendations regarding laboratory safety on the processing and storage of gametes and embryos testing positive for viral infections. WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY The development of new and improved anti-viral medications has resulted in improved life expectancy and quality of life for patients with viral infections/diseases. Patients of reproductive age are increasingly exploring their options for family creation. STUDY DESIGN, SIZE, DURATION The guideline was developed according to the structured methodology for the development of ESHRE guidelines. A...

With the diffusion of Web and Social Media, automatic user profiling classifiers applied to digital contents have become extremely important in application contexts related to social and forensic studies. In many research papers on this topic, an important part of the work is devoted to a costly manual "feature engineering" phase, where the semantic, syntactic, and often languagedependent features need to be accurately chosen to be relevant for profilation task. Differently from this approach, in this work we propose a Twitter user profiling classifier which exploits deep learning techniques to automatically generate user features being a) optimal for user profilation task, and b) able to fight covariance shift problem due to data distribution differences in training and test sets. In the best configuration found, the built system is able to achieve very interesting accuracy results on both English and Spanish languages, with an average final accuracy of more than 0.83.

While favouring communications and easing information sharing, Social Network Sites are also used to launch harmful campaigns against specific groups and individuals. Cyberbullism, incitement to self-harm practices, sexual predation are just some of the severe effects of massive online offensives. Moreover, attacks can be carried out against groups of victims and can degenerate in physical violence. In this work, we aim at containing and preventing the alarming diffusion of such hate campaigns. Using Facebook as a benchmark, we consider the textual content of comments appeared on a set of public Italian pages. We first propose a variety of hate categories to distinguish the kind of hate. Crawled comments are then annotated by up to five distinct human annotators, according to the defined taxonomy. Leveraging morpho-syntactical features, sentiment polarity and word embedding lexicons, we design and implement two classifiers for the Italian language, based on different learning algori...

The success of pregnancy is dependent on the precise regulation of the immune response within the utero-placental environment. Rats are beginning to be widely used as a model for human immune-related pregnancy complications. However, our knowledge of immune cells and cytokine localization in the rat utero-placental tissue is limited. The current study aimed to localize the immune cell populations, including uterine natural killer (uNK) cells, neutrophils, and macrophages within the rat utero-placental unit at two crucial gestational ages, gestational days 15.5 and 18.5. In addition, we characterized the distribution of the cytokines TNFα, IFNγ, and IL-10 in the utero-placental regions at both the above-mentioned gestational ages. Our study has demonstrated co-localization TNFα and IFNγ with uNK cells in perivascular regions of the rat mesometrial triangle at both gestational ages. Neutrophils and IL-10-positive cells were localized at the maternal-fetal interface and in the spiral a...

To evaluate the potential role of human placental endothelial cells in the transport of IgG from maternal to fetal circulation, we studied Fcγ receptor (FcγR) expression by immunohistology and immunoblotting. Several pan-FcγRII Abs that label the placental endothelium displayed a distribution pattern that correlated well with transport functions, being intense in the terminal villus and nil in the cord. In contrast, the MHC class 1-like IgG transporter, FcRn, and the classical FcγRIIa were not expressed in transport-related endothelium of the placenta. Our inference, that FcγRIIb was the likely receptor, we confirmed by analyzing purified placental villi, enriched in endothelium, by immunoblotting with a new Ab specific for the cytoplasmic tail of FcγRIIb. These experiments showed that the FcγRII expressed in villus endothelium was the b2 isoform whose cytoplasmic tail is known to include a phosphotyrosyl-based motif that inhibits a variety of immune responses. We suggest that this ...

The objective of this study was to determine if fetal-maternal cell trafficking is affected by maternal immune competence and/or parental background strain using fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS). In our experience the sensitivity of FACS allows for the detection of 5 fetal in 10 7 maternal cells and assessment of cell surface phenotype. Wild-type C57BL/6J (n=18), FVB/NJ (n=15), and immunodeficient B6129S7-Rag1 tm1Mom /J (n=16) female mice were mated to C57BL/ 6J males homozygous for the green fluorescent protein (GFP) transgene. Single cell suspensions of maternal lung, liver, spleen, bone marrow, and blood were analyzed between late gestation (day e16-18) and one day post-partum for the number of GFP-positive fetal cells in relation to 10 7 maternal cells and the percentage of GFP-positive cells that expressed the surface markers CD11b, CD29, CD34, CD44, or CD105. The highest relative proportions of GFP-positive fetal cells were observed in maternal lungs and livers from immunocompetent allogenic females. Among congenic matings, fetal cell microchimerism was higher in immunodeficient compared with immunocompetent females. Maternal strain and strain differences between the mother and father statistically significantly affected both the numbers of fetal cells and the relative distribution of cell types in maternal organs. The highest relative proportion of fetal cells was observed in allogenic matings with immunocompetent females. Since allogenic matings are more similar to those that occur in humans, future studies using animal models of microchimerism should consider incorporating this type of experimental design.

Gestational age-related changes in the cellular composition of peripheral blood have not been described in sub-Saharan African settings. We conducted longitudinal cohort studies in Beninese and Tanzanian mothers with quantification of peripheral blood mononuclear cell-types ex vivo using flow cytometry. Between the second trimester and delivery the frequency of CD4 + T cells declined significantly, contrasting with a non-significant increase in CD8 + T cells, but no changes in T-regulatory, NK or NKT cell frequencies. Antigenpresenting cell profiles were also unaltered, although non-significant trends were evident. These changes resemble in some respects those reported during pregnancies in developed countries, but differ in others.

Preterm delivery (PTD) is one of the potent contributor of neonatal mortality and morbidity, and the underlying cause in some situation is elusive. This study attempts to delineate the association of deregulation in progesterone receptor (PR) pathway and deleterious immune responses in predisposing patients to PTD in Northeast India, a region with high rate of PTD cases. A total of 109 cases of PTD and 100 term delivery cases were enrolled with all clinical details. The PTD cases were stratified based on gestation age at delivery. The differential expression of PR and key downstream effectors and cytokines were evaluated for correlation with PTD susceptibility, gestational period, and pregnancy outcome. The results indicated a sharp downregulation in PR expression is associated with PTD susceptibility, lower gestational period and negative pregnancy outcome. The PR downstream effector PIBF was also found to be downregulated in PTD, and is associated with gestational period and negative pregnancy outcome. The downregulation of PR and PIBF expression was found to correlate with a predominant Th1 state with higher CD56 + NK cell counts and pro-inflammatory burst lead by hyper TNF-␣, NF-kB and IFN␥ expression, and complicated by lower IL10 expression, contributing to PTD as well as negative pregnancy outcome in the PTD cases. TNF-␣ expression in placenta inversely correlated with placental PR expression. To conclude, deregulation in PR pathway is a hallmark of preterm delivery and negative pregnancy outcome. Differential expression of several markers such as PR, PIBF and TNF-␣ has prognostic significance, and hence is of clinical significance.

Abstract- Background: Dengue fever, spread by the Aedes
aegypti mosquito, is an arboviral infectious disease endemic to
arid and semiarid regions of the globe. Several body organs, i.e.
heart, kidney, liver, pancreas, eyes, and central nervous system,
are affected by dengue fever in various ways. Aim/Objective: The
current study is aimed to assess reproductive dysfunction in
dengue patients. Methodology: Blood samples of 40 male patients
with DF (dengue fever) and SDF (Severe dengue fever) and 30
healthy males of the same age group as the controls were collected.
Blood was drawn and processed so that the serum could be
separated to assess the levels of the reproductive hormones. The
hormonal analysis was done through ELISA, and obtained data
were analyzed statistically using One-Way ANOVA through
IBM-SPSS software. Results: Results showed that FSH level
increased significantly (P=0.039) in dengue patients' groups
compared to controls. Similarly, the level of the LH prominently
(P≤0.001) elevated in the patients' groups compared to controls.
However, there was a significant (P≤0.001) decrease in serum
testosterone levels (hypogonadism) in dengue patients' groups
compared to controls. Conclusion: It was concluded, from the
above results, that the infected patients have a disruption in
reproductive hormone production which can lead to
hypogonadism, ultimately

Problem-Markers of maternal inflammation may determine infant birth outcomes. Method of Study-Maternal serum samples were collected at 28 weeks gestation (n=1418) in the Seychelles Child Development Study Nutrition Cohort 2 and analyzed for immune markers by MSD multiplex assay, including cytokines from the Th1 (IFN-γ, IL-1β, IL-2 and TNF-α) and Th2 (IL-4, IL-5, IL-10) subsets, with IL-6, MCP-1, TARC, sFlt-1 and VEGF-D. Associations of logtransformed immune markers with birthweight, length, head circumference and gestational age were assessed by multiple linear regression models, which were adjusted for maternal age, BMI, parity, child sex, gestational age and socioeconomic status. Results-Neither total Th1, Th2 nor Th1:Th2 were significantly associated with any birth outcome. However, the angiogenesis marker VEGF-D was predictive of a lower birthweight, (β= −0.058, P=0.017) and birth length (β=−0.088, P=0.001) after adjusting for covariates. Higher concentrations of CRP were predictive of a lower birthweight (β=−0.057, P=0.023) and IL-2 (β=0.073, P=0.009) and the chemokine MCP-1 (β=0.067, P=0.016) were predictive of a longer gestational age. Conclusions-In our cohort of healthy pregnant women, we found no evidence for associations between the Th1 or Th2 inflammatory markers with birth outcomes. However, VEGF-D and CRP

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Background: Hypothyroidism may also affect the safety of pregnancy and the health of the fetus, such as the occurrence of miscarriage, premature birth, the effect on the mental development of the fetus, and high blood pressure during pregnancy. Based on previous studies, changes in thyroid function are more common in women, with some considering a 10:1 ratio compared to men. Within it, hypothyroidism occurs at a rate of 0.5-2.5% of all pregnancies, while subclinical hypothyroidism has a prevalence of 2-2. 5% in pregnant women. Between 5-9% of patients develop thyroid disease after birth. Objective: This study aims to Evaluate of the outcomes of hypothyroidism in pregnant women. Patients and Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted for the evaluation of the outcomes of hypothyroidism in pregnant women from 4 th February 2020 to 8 th October 2021. this study was applied to 90 patients in different hospitals in Iraq. In this study, the patients were divided into two groups; the first was hypothyroidism which included 50 patients, while the second group included the control, which included 40 patients by using the SPSS program. Results and Discussion: The results of the study showed a convergence between control patients in terms of age, where the highest percentage was set for ages between 25-34. This study showed an increase in BMI, where the cases were identified as 35 ± 2.5 for patients and 28 ± 3.1 for control with a p-value of 0.0486. According to the economic level, our study showed that most of the patients were from the middle class and included 22 (44%) for patients, and 19 (47.5%) for control, with a p-value of 0.0431. In addition, An assessment was made for pregnant women with hypothyroidism and control, which included percentage and frequency, and the Apgar rating score did not show a wide difference between patients and control. Conclusion: In this study, we identified a statistically significant association between the incidence of problems in pregnant women with hypothyroidism, with a weak correlation between the control group and the frequency of difficulties. In the first group, a high association with the occurrence of complications was discovered, less than or equal to 0.05.

Aim of this study is to investigate whether the risk of miscarriage increases in pregnant women who had COVID-19 in fi rst trimester. Our study included 52 patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection detected by RT-PCR and 53 patients with negative RT-PCR test in samples taken with nasopharyngeal swab in the fi rst trimester between March 1 and December 31, 2020. Complete abortion, incomplete abortion, blighted ovum, intrauterine exitus, biochemical pregnancies were accepted as in the miscarriage group (MG). Pregnant women with COVID-19 and control group were compared in terms of demographic data, miscarriage rate and laboratory results. Patients were divided into MG and ongoing pregnancy groups (OPG) and compared in terms of the diagnosed weeks, clinical fi ndings, laboratory results, treatments, and hospitalization. While miscarriage was observed in 15 (28.8%) of pregnant women infected with SARS-CoV-2 in the fi rst trimester, this number was 7 (13.2%) in the control group. While the common symptoms in the MG were cough (60%), fever (53.3%), shortness of breath (53.3%), and fatigue (46.7%) (p<0.05); asymptomatic patients (51.4%) were higher in the OPG (p<0.001). Hospitalized patients were 33.3% in the MG and 8.1% in the OPG (p=0.02). According to the results of our study, the risk of miscarriage increases in pregnant women infected with SARS-CoV-2 (especially in severe infection) in the fi rst trimester.

Pregnancy provides a unique challenge for maternal immunity, requiring the ability to tolerate the presence of a semi-allogeneic foetus, and yet still being capable of inducing an immune response against invading pathogens. To achieve this, numerous changes must occur in the activity and function of maternal immune cells throughout the course of pregnancy. Respiratory viruses take advantage of these changes, altering the sensitive balance of maternal immunity, leaving the mother with increased susceptibility to viral infections and increased disease severity. Influenza virus is one of the most common respiratory virus infections during pregnancy, leading to an increased risk of ICU hospitalisations, pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome and even death. Whilst much research has been performed to understand the changes that must take place in maternal immunity during pregnancy, considerable work is still needed to fully comprehend this tremendous feat. To date, few studies ha...

Male infertility one of the most common health problems with psychological and social effects. This study aims to investigate the effects of the antisperm antibodies(ASA) on the macroscopic and microscopic parameters of seminal fluid in some infertile males.The percent of ASA type G (IgG), and (IgA) were measured on the surface of sperms, macroscopic and microscopic examination of seminal fluid have been measured for infertile patient resorting to Institute of Embryo Research and Infertility Treatment, Al-Nahrain University, and in the laboratories of Al-Hussain Hospital /Kerbala. Throughout period then March to August 2011. (419)seminal fluid spaceman are collected from infertile patient and measurement the percentage of (IgG&IgA) antisperm antibody to (38) sperm agglutination specimen from infertile patient and comper with (12) fertile men as control group. The results were showed a significant effect (P&lt; 0.05) of IgG and IgA on a liquefaction time, percentage of progressive mo...

Background: Preterm birth is a leading cause of perinatal mortality and morbidity. Heavy cervicovaginal Ureaplasma colonization is thought to play a role in the pathogenesis of preterm birth. The administration of vaginal progesterone has been shown to reduce the incidence of preterm birth in women with short cervical length. Steroid hormones seem to modulate the presence of microorganisms in the vagina. The aim of this study was to assess whether the treatment with vaginal progesterone could reduce the incidence of preterm birth and cervicovaginal colonization by Ureaplasma urealyticum in a cohort of pregnant women with threatened preterm labor. Methods: A cohort of 63 females who presented with regular contractions and/or short cervical length between 24-32 weeks of gestation were recruited into a prospective study. 70% of patients had been treated with vaginal progesterone prior to recruitment and these patients continued with the treatment until birth. All patients were tested for the presence of cervicovaginal Ureaplasma urealyticum colonization at admission. The primary endpoint was preterm birth before 37 weeks. Results: The incidence of preterm delivery was significantly increased in patients who tested positive for Ureaplasma urealyticum. Prolonged vaginal progesterone administration was associated with less frequent cervicovaginal colonization by U. urealyticum. Cervicovaginal colonization by U. urealyticum and absence of progesterone treatment were identified as two independent risk factors for preterm delivery. Conclusions: Our results demonstrate the beneficial effects of progesterone administration in reducing the incidence of cervicovaginal colonization by Ureaplasma urealyticum.

Recent discoveries suggest that T-regulatory lymphocytes (Treg) might play an important role in the pathophysiology of preterm labor. The aim of this study was to assess the relationship among the levels of maternal circulating Treg cells, uterine cervical length, and the risk of preterm labor. Sixty women with regular contractions and/or cervical incompetence at 24-32 weeks' gestation were recruited into a prospective study. Each patient underwent transvaginal ultrasound examination of the cervical length, and regulatory T cells were quantified in peripheral blood samples by flow cytometry. Patients with cervical incompetence were prescribed vaginal progesterone until birth. Measurements of Treg levels and cervical length correlated with the timing of labor. The risk of preterm labor happening within 48 h of testing was demonstrated to be almost 35 times higher (OR = 35.21, CI 13.3; 214, p < 0.001) in the group with simultaneously low Treg values (<0.031 × 10 9 /L) and a shortened uterine cervix (<17.5 mm), compared with the situation where both of these values were normal. Similar results were found in predicting preterm delivery before 34 weeks, or between 34 and 37 weeks. A statistically nonsignificant trend toward increased cervical length and increased Treg count was noted in the women on progesterone treatment. We show for the first time that the combined assessment of Treg cell count and cervical length is a much better predictor of preterm delivery than either parameter used on its own. This combined approach may offer clinical application in patients who present with risk factors for preterm labor.

The prostate gland plays an important role in male reproduction. Inflammation of the prostate gland (prostatitis) is a common health problem affecting many young and middle aged men. Prostatitis is considered a correctable cause of male infertility, but the pathophysiology and appropriate treatment options of prostatitis in male infertility remain unclear. This literature review will focus on current data regarding prostatitis and its impact on male infertility.

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted people's lives all over the world, and vaccination is one of the best ways to eradicate this pandemic and save people's lives. Despite this, vaccines have many known and unknown side effects like fever, fatigue, headache, etc. Fertility is an important aspect of human life, but there are too many concerns about its relationship with COVID-19 and its vaccines. Women are complaining of menstrual irregularities like postmenopausal bleeding, heavy menstrual bleeding, polymenorrhea and fertility concerns after receiving the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. The immunologic reactions between vaccine ingredients and the immune system of the body seem to be responsible for this global issue. Angiotensinconverting enzyme 2 (ACE2) and Basigin (BSG) are the receptors for SARS-COV-2. ACE2 is expressed in the human respiratory system, kidney, vagina, uterus and particularly widely in the ovaries, and BSG is expressed in the uterus, ovary stroma and granulosa cells. Therefore, SARS-COV-2 can invade the target cells by attachment to ACE2 and BSG and modulate their expression, and through these probable mechanisms, it can disturb female reproduction and menstruation. According to this accumulated evidence, in this study we aimed at summarizing the recent studies with a focus on probable mechanisms by which SARS-COV-2 and COVID-19 vaccines affect menstruation irregularities and reproduction complications.

test. To evaluate and compare the predictive powers of the two scores, Somer's d coefficient was calculated. Results: Thirty-seven patients newly developed thrombosis during the observation period; 23 arterial thrombosis and 23 venous thrombosis. The ROC curve of GAPSS showed higher AUC than that of aPL-S (0.693 vs 0.656, respectively, p < 0.05) indicating that GAPSS has better ability of diagnosing APS (GAPSS vs aPL-S: 0.693 vs 0.656, p < 0.05). The cut off values of GAPSS and aPL-S for predicting future thrombosis were 10 and 31, respectively. The Cox multivariate proportional hazard regression analyses revealed that both scores, with appropriate cut off levels, accurately reflected the risks of the future thrombosis with statistic significance (GAPSS > 10 p = 0.01, aPL-S > 31, p < 0.0001). The aPL-S showed higher Somer's coefficient than GAPSS (0.497 vs 0.412, respectively, p < 0.05) Conclusion: The aPL-S and GAPSS accurately reflected the diagnosis of APS and the risk for future thrombotic events in patients with autoimmune diseases in our cohort. GAPSS may have relatively high potential for APS diagnosis and aPL-S might be superior to GAPSS in predicting future thrombosis.

test. To evaluate and compare the predictive powers of the two scores, Somer's d coefficient was calculated. Results: Thirty-seven patients newly developed thrombosis during the observation period; 23 arterial thrombosis and 23 venous thrombosis. The ROC curve of GAPSS showed higher AUC than that of aPL-S (0.693 vs 0.656, respectively, p < 0.05) indicating that GAPSS has better ability of diagnosing APS (GAPSS vs aPL-S: 0.693 vs 0.656, p < 0.05). The cut off values of GAPSS and aPL-S for predicting future thrombosis were 10 and 31, respectively. The Cox multivariate proportional hazard regression analyses revealed that both scores, with appropriate cut off levels, accurately reflected the risks of the future thrombosis with statistic significance (GAPSS > 10 p = 0.01, aPL-S > 31, p < 0.0001). The aPL-S showed higher Somer's coefficient than GAPSS (0.497 vs 0.412, respectively, p < 0.05) The aPL-S and GAPSS accurately reflected the diagnosis of APS and the risk for future thrombotic events in patients with autoimmune diseases in our cohort. GAPSS may have relatively high potential for APS diagnosis and aPL-S might be superior to GAPSS in predicting future thrombosis.

In this paper, we investigate the emotion recognition ability of the pre-training language model, namely BERT. By the nature of the framework of BERT, a two sentence structure, we adapt BERT to continues dialogue emotion prediction tasks, which rely heavily on the sentence-level context-aware understanding. The experiments show that by mapping the continues dialogue into a causal utterance pair, which is constructed by the utterance and the reply utterance, models can better capture the emotions of the reply utterance. The present method have achieved 0.815 and 0.885 micro F1 score in the testing dataset of Friends and EmotionPush, respectively. * Corresponding Author emotion detection, the information from preceding utterances in a conversation is relatively critical. Table 1: Emotions depending on the context Monica I'm gonna miss you! Rachel I mean it's the end of an era! Monica I know! (sadness) Chandler So, what do you think? Ross I think It's the most beautiful table I've ever seen. Chandler I know! (joy) Monica Now, this is last minute so I want to apologize for the mess. Okay? Rachel Oh my God! It sure didn't look this way when I lived here. Monica I know! (surprise)

The feasibility of preventing invasive pneumococcal infections during the first few months of life by immunization during pregnancy has been investigated. One hundred andjifty Gambian women were immunized with either a 23-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine or a meningococcal polysaccharide vaccine during the last trimester of pregnancy. Pregnant women showed a good antibody response to five of the six pneumococcal polysaccharides tested (types 1,3, 5,6,14 and 19) but not to type 6polysaccharide. Mean cord bloodlmaternal blood IgG antibody ratios variedfrom 24% (type 1) to 49% (type 3) and dtflered substantially between individual motherlinfant pairs. Pneumococcal antibody levels were higher at birth in infants of women immunized with pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine than in control infants. However, these antibodies disappeared rapidly during the first few months of ltfe and it is uncertain how much clinical protection against pneumococcal infection maternal immunization would have provided.

Highlights  CD4 + CD25 + CD127 low/neg and CD8 + HLA-G + Treg cells significantly diminished in preeclamptic women compared to healthy pregnant ones.  There was a shift toward the lower suppressive capacity of CD4 + CD25 + CD127 low/neg and CD4 + HLA-G + Treg cells in preeclamptic patients compared to healthy pregnant ones.  Impaired immune tolerance might be clinically important in the context of pre-eclampsia.

Objectives: Quantifying the different sorts of small for gestational age
(SGA): constitutional SGA vs fetal growth restriction (FGR, i.e. Doppler
anomalies), and verifying if the most frequent cause of FGR is associated
with maternal preeclampsia.
Design: University’s maternity, 23.5 year-observational population-based
cohort study. All consecutive singleton pregnancies.
Main outcome Measures: Comparing risk factors between the different
types of SGA’s and controls (pregnancies without preeclampsia and SGA).

Objectives: Quantifying the different sorts of small for gestational age (SGA): constitutional SGA vs fetal growth restriction (FGR, i.e. Doppler anomalies), and verifying if the most frequent cause of FGR is associated with maternal preeclampsia. Design: University's maternity, 23.5 year-observational population-based cohort study. All consecutive singleton pregnancies. Main outcome Measures: Comparing risk factors between the different types of SGA's and controls (pregnancies without preeclampsia and SGA). Results: There were 8,601 SGA/ 83,617 malformations excluded births (10.2%). Those associated with maternal preeclampsia (PES, N= 536) represented 6.2% of all SGA, those without maternal preeclampsia but diagnosed with having Doppler anomalies « vascular SGA » (VascS, N= 1,389) represented 16.1%. The remaining N= 6,676, without Doppler anomalies "constitutional SGA" (constS) comprised ¾ (77.6%) of all SGA. Singleton pregnancies without any hypertensive disease and without SGA (N= 75,316) represented the control group.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a severe global pandemic, affecting mostly the respiratory system. Understandably, attention is also being directed towards the urogenital tract. In this work, expression patterns of various host molecules possibly involved in viral entry and replication were investigated in human female and male reproductive systems by inquiring online repositories, including the Human Protein Atlas, GTEx, FANTOM5. Our findings highlight that male reproductive tissues could be targeted by SARS-CoV-2, particularly the testis since it co-expresses the receptor (ACE2) and the protease (TMPRSS) needed for viral entry. We hypothesized that SARS-CoV-2 infection could have repercussions on the fertility status of male individuals Potential infectivity of SARS-CoV-2 in reproductive tissues should be considered in reproductive medicine and management of in vitro fertilization in present and future generations. Keywords Gene expression. SARS-CoV-2. Reproductive tissues Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is widely considered as a dramatic global pandemic. COVID-19 has been firstly characterized by respiratory manifestations ranging from sore throat, rhinorrhea, cough, and dyspnea, to pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome with pathognomonic chest X-ray features [1]. Other not specific symptoms are fever, myalgia, headache, lymphopenia, increment of C-reactive protein, hyposmia, and hypogeusia [1]. Nevertheless, new insights highlight that other organs can be infected by SARS-CoV-2; indeed, in a minor fraction of the cases, diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting are reported, suggesting the involvement of the gastro-enteric system [1]. Furthermore,

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The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted people's lives all over the world, and vaccination is one of the best ways to eradicate this pandemic and save people's lives. Despite this, vaccines have many known and unknown side effects like fever, fatigue, headache, etc. Fertility is an important aspect of human life, but there are too many concerns about its relationship with COVID-19 and its vaccines. Women are complaining of menstrual irregularities like postmenopausal bleeding, heavy menstrual bleeding, polymenorrhea and fertility concerns after receiving the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. The immunologic reactions between vaccine ingredients and the immune system of the body seem to be responsible for this global issue. Angiotensinconverting enzyme 2 (ACE2) and Basigin (BSG) are the receptors for SARS-COV-2. ACE2 is expressed in the human respiratory system, kidney, vagina, uterus and particularly widely in the ovaries, and BSG is expressed in the uterus, ovary stroma and granulosa cells. Therefore, SARS-COV-2 can invade the target cells by attachment to ACE2 and BSG and modulate their expression, and through these probable mechanisms, it can disturb female reproduction and menstruation. According to this accumulated evidence, in this study we aimed at summarizing the recent studies with a focus on probable mechanisms by which SARS-COV-2 and COVID-19 vaccines affect menstruation irregularities and reproduction complications.

The feasibility of preventing invasive pneumococcal infections during the first few months of life by immunization during pregnancy has been investigated. One hundred andjifty Gambian women were immunized with either a 23-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine or a meningococcal polysaccharide vaccine during the last trimester of pregnancy. Pregnant women showed a good antibody response to five of the six pneumococcal polysaccharides tested (types 1,3, 5,6,14 and 19) but not to type 6polysaccharide. Mean cord bloodlmaternal blood IgG antibody ratios variedfrom 24% (type 1) to 49% (type 3) and dtflered substantially between individual motherlinfant pairs. Pneumococcal antibody levels were higher at birth in infants of women immunized with pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine than in control infants. However, these antibodies disappeared rapidly during the first few months of ltfe and it is uncertain how much clinical protection against pneumococcal infection maternal immunization would have provided.

$5 infant mortality; Group 3: 41.8% heterozygotes; 45% infant mortality. Further analysis of the progeny of Group 2 revealed a parity effect. First and second litters had a statistically significant excess of heterozygotes as compared to third, fourth, fifth, and sixth litters (55.6% vs. 44.9%; p<.05). No such parity effect was apparent in Groups 1 and 3. Thus we conclude that under normal circumstances I) the capacity of the female parent to generate an immune response to the foreign antigens of her fetus; 2) environmental pressures, i.e. infectious agents; and 3) a parity effect; all interact to produce little, if any, deviation from the expected Mendelian ratios, and thus contribute to the maintenance of antigenic polymorphism within the population.