Comparison of uterine, endometrial and subendometrial blood flows in predicting pregnancy outcomes between fresh and frozen-thawed embryo transfer after GnRH antagonist protocol: a retrospective cohort study.

This retrospective cohort study aimed to compare endometrial receptivity and pregnancy rate between fresh embryo transfer (ET) and frozen-thawed ET after gonadotrophin-releasing hormone (GnRH) antagonist protocol in normal ovarian responders. The patients were divided into two groups: the fresh ET group and the frozen-thawed ET group. Uterine artery resistance index (RI) and endometrial thickness were lower in the frozen-thawed ET group. The proportion of detectable endometrial-subendometrial flow was significantly higher in the frozen-thawed ET group. There was no significant difference in miscarriage rate between the two groups. Frozen-thawed ET group had a significantly higher CPR (56.0% vs. 48.1%), implantation rate (32.2% vs. 26.4%), and LBR (45.4% vs. 36.5%) than the fresh ET group. In GnRH antagonist protocol, elective frozen-thawed ET should be ideally taken, as this could improve embryo implantation rate, clinical pregnancy rate, and live birth rate, thus presenting an effective strategy to enhance the embryo utilization rate.IMPACT STATEMENTWhat is already known on this subject? The clinical pregnancy rate following fresh embryo transfer (ET) was lower than frozen-thawed ET after GnRH antagonist protocol. IVF success depends on embryo quality, embryo-endometrium interaction and endometrial receptivity. A good blood supply toward the endometrium is generally considered a requirement for implantation.What do the results of this study add? Uterine artery RI and endometrial thickness were significantly lower in the frozen-thawed ET group. The proportion of detectable endometrial-subendometrial flow was significantly higher in the frozen-thawed ET group. Frozen-thawed ET group had a significantly higher clinical pregnancy rate, implantation rate and live birth rate than the fresh ET group after GnRH antagonist protocol.What are the implications of these findings for clinical practice and/or further research? In GnRH antagonist protocol, elective frozen-thawed ET should be ideally taken, as this could improve embryo implantation rate, clinical pregnancy rate and live birth rate, thus presenting an effective strategy to enhance the embryo utilization rate.

Identification of biomarkers associated with macrophage infiltration in non-obstructive azoospermia using single-cell transcriptomic and microarray data.

Background: Non-obstructive azoospermia (NOA) is a common clinical cause of male infertility. Research suggests that macrophages are linked to testicular function; however, their involvement in NOA remains unknown. Methods: To evaluate the importance of macrophages infiltration in NOA and identify the macrophage-related biomarkers, the gene-expression microarray data GSE45885 and the single-cell transcriptomic data GSE149512 were utilized from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO). A single-sample gene set enrichment analysis (ssGSEA) was conducted to investigate immune cell proliferation. The Seurat package was used for the single-cell data analysis, and the limma package was used to identify the differentially expressed genes between the NOA and normal samples. Moreover, we conducted a weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) to identify the macrophage-related key modules and genes, and conducted Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) and Gene Ontology (GO) analyses for the functional exploration. To identify the macrophage-related biomarkers, we conducted least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) and support vector machine-recursive feature elimination (SVM-RFE) analyses. Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) was used to verify the marker genes present in NOA. Results: We confirmed that open reading frame 72 gene on chromosome 9 (C9orf72) [area under the curve (AUC) =0.861] and cartilage-associated protein (CRTAP) (AUC =0.917) were the hub genes of NOA, and the RT-qPCR analysis revealed the critical expression of both genes in NOA. Conclusions: Through the combination of tissue transcriptomic and single-cell RNA-sequencing analyses, we concluded that macrophage infiltration is significant in different subtypes of NOA, and we hypothesized that C9orf72 and CRTAP play critical roles in NOA due to their high expression in macrophages.

[Klinefelter syndrome: Advances in research].

Klinefelter syndrome (KS) is a most common chromosome abnormality and frequently leads to male infertility. In recent years, deeper insights have been gained into the treatment of KS in children, clinical manifestations of KS, as well as reproductive problems and pre- and postnatal screening of the disease. This article presents an overview of the epidemiology, clinical manifestations, pathophysiological mechanism, laboratory examination, drug therapy and application of assisted reproductive technology, and KS screening, aiming to provide some reference for KS-related clinical practice.

Effect of estradiol on chemokine receptor CXCR2 expression in rats: implications for atherosclerosis.

AIM: To study the effect of 17beta-estradiol on expression of chemokine receptor CXCR2 in monocytes in vivo. METHODS: Expressions of chemokine receptor CXCR2 mRNA and protein were measured by RT-PCR and flow cytometry, respectively. RESULTS: In both ovary-intact and ovariectomized (OVX) rats, CXCR2 protein and mRNA expression were significantly increased in rats fed with a high-cholesterol diet for 6 weeks. The cholesterol-induced increases in CXCR2 protein and mRNA expression were significantly attenuated in OVX rats injected with estradiol-17beta (17beta-E2) (5 and 20 microg x kg(-1) x d(-1)). In normal diet rats, CXCR2 protein and mRNA expression were increased in OVX rats compared with ovary-intact rats, and this increase was prevented by 17beta-E2. CONCLUSION: Both basal and hypercholesterolemia-induced increases in chemokine receptor CXCR2 are modulated by physiological concentrations of estradiol.