Menstruation: science and society

© 2020 The Authors Women's health concerns are generally underrepresented in basic and translational research, but reproductive health in particular has been hampered by a lack of understanding of basic uterine and menstrual physiology. Menstrual health is an integral part of overall health because between menarche and menopause, most women menstruate. Yet for tens of millions of women around the world, menstruation regularly and often catastrophically disrupts their physical, mental, and social well-being. Enhancing our understanding of the underlying phenomena involved in menstruation, abnormal uterine bleeding, and other menstruation-related disorders will move us closer to the goal of p…

Precision medicine in human reproduction. Special Issue

Reconstruction of Endometrium from Human Endometrial Side Population Cell Lines

Endometrial regeneration is mediated, at least in part, by the existence of a specialized somatic stem cell (SSC) population recently identified by several groups using the side population (SP) technique. We previously demonstrated that endometrial SP displays genotypic, phenotypic and the functional capability to develop human endometrium after subcutaneous injection in NOD-SCID mice. We have now established seven human endometrial SP (hESP) cell lines (ICE 1-7): four from the epithelial and three from the stromal fraction, respectively. SP cell lines were generated under hypoxic conditions based on their cloning efficiency ability, cultured for 12-15 passages (20 weeks) and cryopreserved.…

Biomarkers in reproductive medicine: the quest for new answers.

Personalized medicine in assisted reproductive technologies (ART) is still in its infancy. Precision medicine, based on objective molecular tools added, to clinical medicine is well-accepted and developed in oncology and other potent medical disciplines. The impact of personalized medicine in cancer is broad, from screening to diagnosis, with the stratification of patients into cancer subgroup categories, facilitating individualized therapies that impact treatment effectiveness and disease recurrence (Diamandis et al., 2010; Hamburg and Collins, 2010). In reproductive medicine many ‘unknown black boxes’ still exist. These will only be unraveled with the timely application of novel technolog…