Meeting Report: Third International Congress of the International Society of Uterus Transplantation, Tübingen.

Uterus transplantation (UTx) is currently the only available treatment for absolute uterine factor infertility. The International Society of Uterus Transplantation (ISUTx) was formally founded in 2017 and joined the Transplantation Society as a formal section in 2021. The Third International Congress of the ISUTx was held in Tübingen, Germany, in October 2021, as a hybrid meeting, attended virtually by about 450 delegates and in person by 35 delegates. This report summarizes the Tübingen meeting and complementary topics of relevance presented at the Second ISUTx state-of-the-art webinar meeting, held in Prague, in October 2020. Main topics covered included surgical considerations, including dissection of veins in living donors and the pros and cons of minimally invasive surgery; managing immune risks; UTx during the COVID-19 pandemic; lessons learnt in the areas of imaging and cytomegalovirus infection; long-term psychological outcomes; opportunities to increase organ availability; and new horizons in UTx, including potential reuse of transplants and the utilization of robotic approaches. Implementation of an International UTx Registry was discussed and considered crucial to assure quality, safety, and further progress in UTx. Attempts made thus far have been promising.

Molecular and Physiological Aspects of SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Women and Pregnancy.

Whilst scientific knowledge about SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 is rapidly increasing, much of the effects on pregnant women is still unknown. To accommodate pregnancy, the human endometrium must undergo a physiological transformation called decidualization. These changes encompass the remodeling of endometrial immune cells leading to immunotolerance of the semi-allogenic conceptus as well as defense against pathogens. The angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) plays an important regulatory role in the renin-angiotensin-system (RAS) and has been shown to be protective against comorbidities known to worsen COVID-19 outcomes. Furthermore, ACE2 is also crucial for decidualization and thus for early gestation. An astounding gender difference has been found in COVID-19 with male patients presenting with more severe cases and higher mortality rates. This could be attributed to differences in sex chromosomes, hormone levels and behavior patterns. Despite profound changes in the female body during pregnancy, expectant mothers do not face worse outcomes compared with non-pregnant women. Whereas mother-to-child transmission through respiratory droplets during labor or in the postnatal period is known, another question of in utero transmission remains unanswered. Evidence of placental SARS-CoV-2 infection and expression of viral entry receptors at the maternal-fetal interface suggests the possibility of in utero transmission. SARS-CoV-2 can cause further harm through placental damage, maternal systemic inflammation, and hindered access to health care during the pandemic. More research on the effects of COVID-19 during early pregnancy as well as vaccination and treatment options for gravid patients is urgently needed.

How Negative Is Negative Information.

Daily, we face a plenty of negative information that can profoundly affect our perception and behavior. During devastating events such as the current COVID-19 pandemic, negative messages may hinder reasoning at individual level and social decisions in the society at large. These effects vary across genders in neurotypical populations (being more evident in women) and may be even more pronounced in individuals with neuropsychiatric disorders such as depression. Here, we examine how negative information impacts reasoning on a social perception task in females with breast cancer, a life-threatening disease. Two groups of patients and two groups of matched controls (N TO TAL = 80; median age, 50 years) accomplished a psychometrically standardized social cognition and reasoning task receiving either the standard instruction solely or additional negative information. Performance substantially dropped in patients and matched controls who received negative information compared to those who did not. Moreover, patients with negative information scored much lower not only compared with controls but also with patients without negative information. We suggest the effects of negative information are mediated by the distributed brain networks involved in affective processing and emotional memory. The findings offer novel insights on the impact of negative information on social perception and decision making during life-threatening events, fostering better understanding of its neurobiological underpinnings.