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 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:Gene expression profiling of immortalized human mesenchymal stem cells with hTERT/E6/E7 transfected MSCs. hTERT may change gene expression in MSCs. Goal was to determine the gene expressions of immortalized MSCs.
Project description:RNA-sequencing was performed on patient mammary epithelial cell subsets from premenopausal and postmenopausal women undergoing breast reduction surgeries to interrogate transcriptional changes in postmenopausal cells.
Project description:A lactobacilli dominated microbiota in most pre and post-menopausal women is an indicator of vaginal health. A Nugent scoring system serves as a proxy for determining the ratio of lactobacilli to other vaginal inhabitants where a high score usually represents a diseased state, whilst an intermediate score represents a warning zone. The objective of this double blinded, placebo-controlled crossover study was to evaluate in 14 post-menopausal women with an intermediate score, the effect of vaginal administration of probiotic L. rhamnosus GR-1 and L. reuteri RC-14 on the microbiota and host response. The probiotic treatment did not result in changes to clinical parameters such as dryness, irritation and comfort, compared to when placebo was applied. Analysis using 16S rRNA sequencing and metabolomics profiling revealed that the proportional abundance of Lactobacillus was increased following probiotic administration as compared to placebo, which was weakly associated with an increase in lactate levels. Analysis of host responses by microarray showed the probiotics had an immune-modulatory response and multiplex cytokine analysis showed up-regulation of IL-5. This is the first study to use an interactomic approach for the study of vaginal probiotic administration in post-menopausal women. It shows that in some cases multifaceted approaches are required to detect the subtle trigger molecular changes induced by the host to instillation of probiotic strains. A total of 35 total RNA samples extracted from vaginal brushes were analyzed on Affymetrix Gene 2.0 ST arrays from 14 Participants collected over multiple visits including administration of either a probiotic supplement or placebo control.
Project description:We studied differences in epithelial thickness by histology and gene expression by Affymetrix gene arrays and PCR in the skin/fat of 10 obese (BMI 35-50) and 10 normal weight (BMI 18.5-26.9) postmenopausal women paired by age and race