DESIGN: Preliminary assessment of serum levels of female hormones in women with or without T1DM. Then histological and immunological examinations were carried out on the pancreas, ovaries and uteri at different stages in non-obese diabetic (NOD) and Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) mice, as well as assessment of their fertility. A protein array was carried out to detect the changes in serum inflammatory cytokines. Furthermore, RNA-sequencing was used to identify the key abnormal genes/pathways in ovarian and uterine tissues of female NOD mice, which were further verified at the protein level.
RESULTS: Testosterone levels were significantly increased (P = 0.0036) in female mice with T1DM. Increasing age in female NOD mice was accompanied by obvious lymphocyte infiltration in the pancreatic islets. Moreover, the levels of serum inflammatory factors in NOD mice were sharply increased with increasing age. The fertility of female NOD mice declined markedly, and most were capable of conceiving only once. Furthermore, ovarian and uterine morphology and function were severely impaired in NOD female mice. Additionally, ovarian and uterine tissues revealed that the differentially expressed genes were primarily enriched in metabolism, cytokine-receptor interactions and chemokine signalling pathways.
CONCLUSION: T1DM exerts a substantial impairment on female reproductive health, leading to diminished fertility, potentially associated with immune disorders and alterations in energy metabolism.
METHODS: A population-based case-referent study was performed using cases with congenital anomalies (N = 5,131) from EUROCAT Northern Netherlands, a registry of congenital anomalies. The referent population (N = 31,055) was selected from the pregnancy IADB.nl, a pharmacy prescription database.
RESULTS: Ten placental transporters known to have comparable expression levels in the placenta to that of P-gp, were selected in this study. In total, 147 drugs were identified to be substrates, inhibitors or inducers, of these transporters. Fifty-eight of these drugs were used by at least one mother in our cases or referent population, and 28 were used in both. The highest user rate was observed for the substrates of multidrug resistance-associated protein 1, mainly folic acid (6% of cases, 8% of referents), and breast cancer resistance protein, mainly nitrofurantoin (2.3% of cases, 2.9% of referents). In contrast to P-gp, drug interactions involving substrates of these transporters did not have a significant effect on the risk of congenital anomalies.
CONCLUSIONS: Some of the drugs which are substrates or inhibitors of placental transporters were commonly used during pregnancy. No significant effect of transporter inhibition was found on fetal drug exposure, possibly due to a limited number of exposures.
METHODS: Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into four groups: Sham, AMI, AMI treated with PBS (AMI-PBS), and AMI treated with pirfenidone (AMI-PFD) (n=12 each). AMI was induced via coronary artery ligation. The AMI-PFD and AMI-PBS groups received pirfenidone and PBS for 14 days, respectively. Cardiac function, fibrosis, serum cytokines, collagen and elastin content, and their ratios were assessed. Cardiac fibroblasts (CFs) from neonatal rats were categorized into control, hypoxia-induced (LO), LO+PBS, and LO+PFD groups. ELISA measured inflammatory factors, and RT-PCR analyzed collagen and elastin gene expression.
RESULTS: The AMI-PFD group showed improved cardiac function and reduced serum interleukin-1β (IL-1β), IL-6, and transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β). Type I and III collagen decreased by 22.6 % (P=0.0441) and 34.4 % (P=0.0427), respectively, while elastin content increased by 79.4 % (P=0.0126). E/COLI and E/COLIII ratios rose by 81.1 % (P=0.0026) and 88.1 % (P=0.0006). CFs in the LO+PFD group exhibited decreased IL-1β, IL-6, TGF-β, type I and III collagen, with increased elastin mRNA, enhancing the elastin/collagen ratio.
CONCLUSION: Pirfenidone enhances cardiac function by augmenting the early elastin/collagen ratio post-AMI.