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This study was performed to determine whether peritoneal T cells are suppressed in the CD4+ or CD8+ T cell subpopulation and whether they are Th1 or Th2 predominant in women with endometriosis. Immune cells in the peritoneal fluid (PF) were obtained from women undergoing laparoscopy for endometriosis or tubal ligation. Three-colour flow cytometry was utilized for immunophenotyping of peritoneal fluid mononuclear cells (PFMC). Concentrations of interleukin (IL)-4, IL-5 and interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) produced by PFMC with and without mitogen stimulation and concentrations of IL-10 and IL-12 were measured in PF. The peritoneal T lymphocytes were predominantly of the Th1 type that produced much more IFN-gamma but less IL-4 or IL-5 in women with or without endometriosis. The decrease in peritoneal lymphocytes was significant in the HLA-DR+ CD4+ CD3+ subpopulation and the concentrations of peritoneal IL-10 and IL-12 were significantly elevated in women with early stage endometriosis. There was impaired IL-5 production by PFMC after phytohaemagglutinin stimulation in women with advanced stage endometriosis. We concluded that the activated peritoneal CD4+ Th1 cells from the women with endometriosis were decreased in number. The suppression of these T cells may be due to the elevation of IL-10 and IL-12 in the peritoneal fluid.

BackgroundAn endometrial polyp is a frequently encountered gynecologic disease with abnormal uterine bleeding and infertility being the two common presenting problems, and hysteroscopic polypectomy is an effective method to remove them. The postoperative polyp recurrence might result in reappearance of abnormal uterine bleeding or infertility, whereas factors influencing the postoperative recurrence potential have limited data.MethodsThis case-series report included 168 premenopausal women who suffered from endometrial polyps and underwent hysteroscopic polypectomy. All of them were awaiting a future pregnancy. Office hysteroscopy was done before and after hysteroscopic polypectomy, in which preoperative hysteroscopy examined the number, type, and location of endometrial polyps, and postoperative hysteroscopy checked the polyp recurrence. Surgical indications, either infertility or the presentation of abnormal uterine bleeding, and follow-up duration were recorded.ResultsSeventy-three out of 168 (43%) women had polyp recurrence after hysteroscopic polypectomy. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that more endometrial polyps (P = 0.015) and longer duration of follow-up (P = 0.004) were significantly associated with an increased risk of postoperative polyp recurrence. The type of endometrial polyps was not correlated with polyp recurrence potential, whereas pedunculated type endometrial polyps were closely related to the presentation of abnormal uterine bleeding (P = 0.001).ConclusionsA higher number of endometrial polyps and longer follow-up duration are associated with a greater potential of polyp recurrence after hysteroscopic polypectomy.

An endometrial thickness of 10 mm or more has been reported to be favourable for embryo implantation. Nevertheless, many women participating in in-vitro fertilization (IVF) programmes have adequate endometrial thickness but do not achieve satisfactory implantation. With the aid of power Doppler sonography, we examined the association between intra-endometrial vascularity and reproductive outcome. For this study, we enrolled only women with endometrial thickness >/=ISOdia>/=10 mm and excluded those with apparent endometrial pathologies. Of 95 women undergoing IVF cycles, there resulted 37 intrauterine pregnancies. The women were of similar age, body mass index, peak oestradiol concentration and endometrial thickness, and a similar number of embryos were transferred. Those women with an intra-endometrial power Doppler area (EPDA) <5 mm2 achieved a significantly lower pregnancy rate (23. 5 versus 47.5%, P = 0.021) and implantation rate (8.1 versus 20.2%, P = 0.003) than those with an EPDA >/=ISOdia>/=5 mm2. We conclude that, in addition to endometrial thickness, EPDA may serve as a factor indicative of endometrial receptivity. Women with adequate endometrial thickness but a small EPDA tended to have an unfavourable reproductive outcome.

We demonstrated control and detection of UV-induced 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) polarization using silicon nanowire field-effect transistors made by top-down lithograph technology. The electric dipole moment in APTES films induced by UV-illumination was shown to produce negative effective charges. When individual dipoles were aligned with an externally applied electric field, the collective polarization can prevail over the UV-induced charges in the wires and give rise to an abnormal resistance enhancement in n-type wires. Real-time detection of hybridization of 15-mer poly-T/poly-A DNA molecules was performed, and the amount of hybridization-induced charges in the silicon wire was estimated. Based on these results, detection sensitivity of the wire sensors was discussed.Hetero-interfaces between organic and semiconductor oxides have attracted extensive attentions 1-4 due to the critical role of molecule assembly in the sensing electronics involving hybrid structures. APTES 5 (3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane) and other compounds such as PTS 6 (n-propyltrichlorosilane), OTS 7 (n-octadecyltrichlorosilane), TCTS 8 (n-triacontyltrichlorosilane), OTMS 9 (n-octadecyltrimethoxysilane), and AHT-MS 9 (n-aminoheptadecyltrimethoxysilane) with head-andtail functional groups are widely used interfacing molecules, and assembly of these molecules is essential in surfacemodification technologies. Silanization of oxidized semiconductor surfaces is a commonly employed scheme for functionalization of sensors. The functional groups would then provide binding sites for attachment of probe molecules, such as single-strand DNA (ssDNA), on the semiconductor sensing devices. The nanowire-based sensors have been demonstrated 10-14 as an ultra sensitive detector for probing molecular charges at the wire surface. However, surface modification of the functional groups on the nanowire surface is not a trivial task. Extensive studies in the surfacemodification were reported in the past years, 5-9 but issues concerning monolayer molecule ordering in terms of the electric dipole moment remain unexplored. Taking APTES as an example, in this study, we proposed a simple method to align the molecule dipoles, and the degree of alignment was examined by underneath Si-nanowire (SiNW) field effect transistors. This method provides a sensitive way for structure investigation of few molecules at the nanometer scale, which is otherwise unfeasible by the present-day examination tools. † These authors contributed equally to this work.

We have studied the magnetic-field-induced superconductor-insulator quantum phase transition in one-dimensional arrays of small Josephson junctions. We found that the critical magnetic field that separates the two phases corresponds to the onset of Coulomb blockade of Cooper pairs tunneling in the current-voltage characteristics. The resistance data are analyzed in the context of the superfluid-insulator transition in one dimension, and a finite-temperature scaling analysis is performed to extract the critical exponents. The dynamical exponents z are determined to be close to 1, and the correlation length exponents n are found to be approximately 0.3 and 0.45 in the two groups of measured samples.