Project description:The onset of menopause is accompanied by a dramatic increase in reported symptoms of vaginal dryness, soreness, irritation or itching, pain with intercourse and bleeding after intercourse. Collectively these affect 25-50% of women of post-menopausal age and significantly impact their quality of life. To examine how gene expression differs between these groups, surface vaginal epithelial cells were collected from postmenopausal women suffering from vaginal dryness and appropriate controls not suffering from dryness. Affymetrix GeneChip Human 1.0 ST microarrays were performed on RNA isolated from ten participants. Suitable RNA was extracted from ten participants which were classified into two groups, the dryness and control groups, based on diagnosis of dryness by a nurse during gynecoligical examination.
Project description:The onset of menopause is accompanied by a dramatic increase in reported symptoms of vaginal dryness, soreness, irritation or itching, pain with intercourse and bleeding after intercourse. Collectively these affect 25-50% of women of post-menopausal age and significantly impact their quality of life. To examine how gene expression differs between these groups, surface vaginal epithelial cells were collected from postmenopausal women suffering from vaginal dryness and appropriate controls not suffering from dryness. Affymetrix GeneChip Human 1.0 ST microarrays were performed on RNA isolated from ten participants.
Project description:The diversity and basic functional attributes of the gut microbiome of healthy Indians is not well understood. This study investigated the gut microbiome of three Indian communities: individuals residing in rural and urban (n?=?49) sea level Ballabhgarh areas and in rural high altitude areas of Leh, Ladakh in North India (n?=?35). Our study revealed that the gut microbiome of Indian communities is dominated by Firmicutes followed by Bacteroidetes, Actinobateria and Proteobacteria. Although, 54 core bacterial genera were detected across the three distinct communities, the gut bacterial composition displayed specific signatures and was observed to be influenced by the topographical location and dietary intake of the individuals. The gut microbiome of individuals living in Leh was observed to be significantly similar with a high representation of Bacteroidetes and low abundance of Proteobacteria. In contrast, the gut microbiome of individuals living in Ballabhgarh areas harbored higher number of Firmicutes and Proteobacteria and is enriched with microbial xenobiotic degradation pathways. The rural community residing in sea level Ballabhgarh areas has unique microbiome characterized not only by a higher diversity, but also a higher degree of interindividual homogeneity.
Project description:Background: Vaginal birth causes injury to the pelvic floor and may lead to urinary incontinence. Cell therapy has been proposed to assist in functional recovery. Objective: To assess if intra-arterial injection of mesoangioblasts (MABs) or Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF)-overexpressed MABs, improves urethral and vaginal function recovery after simulated vaginal delivery (SVD). Results: All stem-cell injected rats had external urethral sphincteric and vaginal function recovery within 14d, as compared to half of controls. Functional recovery was paralleled by improved muscle regeneration and microvascularization. Recovery was not different between autologous and allogenic MABs. MABsallo-VEGF accelerated functional recovery and increased GAP-43 expression at 7d. We detected early on in the recovery major transcriptional changes in both MABsallo and MABsallo-VEGF. MABSallo upregulated transcripts that encode proteins involved in myogenesis and dendrite development, and downregulated pro-inflammatory processes MABsallo-VEGF upregulated transcripts that encode proteins involved neuron and dendrite development and downregulates genes involved in hypoxia and oxidative stress. 7d after injury, Later MABsallo-VEGF showed a decrease in oxidative and inflammatory response compared to MABSallo treated urethras. These pathways are also downregulated in animals that have recovered at 7d, compared to non-recovered animals. Conclusion: Intra-arterial injection of MABsallo-VEGF enhances neuroregeneration and accelerates functional urethral and vaginal recovery after simulated vaginal delivery. Injection of stem cells induces faster recovery of urethral and vaginal function; cells overexpressing a factor increasing blood vessel formation, were even more effective.