Ovarian cortical tissue cryopreservation is a relatively novel approach to preserving fertility in women diagnosed with cancer. However, the effects of freezing-thawing are not fully understood, mainly due to the lack of suitable methods to assess tissue’s survival after thawing. Disparities in steroid production have been associated with ovarian failure by disrupting folliculogenesis, ovulation and oocyte apoptosis. Moreover, specific miRNAs, identified in human ovarian follicles, are thought to play a fundamental role in folliculogenesis. In this study, we investigated the possible interplay between the ovarian steroidal production and miRNA expression patterns in spent culture media, as potential non-invasive markers for ovarian tissue damage after cryopreservation. Cryopreservation of ovarian cortical tissue decreased (P < 0.05) both steroid production (oestradiol and progesterone) and expression of miRNA-193b and 320A in spent culture media over 5 days; however, expression of miRNA-24 increased (P < 0.05). The number of primordial follicles was also reduced (P < 0.05) in fresh-cultured and cryopreserved-cultured cortical tissues when compared with fresh tissues. Downregulation of miRNA-193b and miRNA-320A together with upregulation of miRNA-24 could have a synergistic role in cell apoptosis, and consequently leading to reduced oestradiol and progesterone production. Thus, there appears to be an interplay between these miRNAs, ovarian steroid production and cell damage, which can be further explored as novel non-invasive markers of cell damage following cryopreservation.

Introduction: The expanding spectrum of therapeutic options for patients with Obstructive /surgical jaundice makes it necessary for the surgeon to precisely assess the etiology, location, level and extent of disease before operation. Aims were to compare the diagnostic accuracy, sensitivity and specificity of different imaging techniques like ultrasonography (USG), Computed tomography (CT) and Magnetic Resonance Cholangiopancreatography (MRCP) and Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) in evaluation of patients with malignant obstructive jaundice and correlation of histopathological findings after surgical/ therapeutic intervention. Methods: It was a prospective observational study conducted in the Department of General Surgery and Hepatobilliary unit, Dhaka Medical College Hospital and Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, Dhaka during January 2015 to December 2015 for duration of one year to find out the role of different imaging techniques in diagnosis of malignant lesions causing obstructive jaundice in 50 cases who fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Initial USG evaluation was followed by CT scan, MRCP and ERCP. The results were read by radiologists blinded to other imaging findings. Surgically fit patients with a stage of resectability should be offered the option of surgical resection for cure. For unresectable malignancies, the choice is between surgical palliation/bypass and ERCP with drainage. The characteristic surgical findings or ERCP features and histopathological diagnosis were recorded methodically as final. Results: Malignant obstructive jaundice is the commonest amongst the males and mean age was 47.56 ± 13.191 and the commonest etiology was Ca head of pancreas (30%). Diagnostic accuracy of MRCP (98%) in the diagnosis of malignant obstructive jaundice was relatively high (98%) as compared to ERCP (89.5%), CT (91.43%), USG (89.97%) in malignant obstructive jaundice respectively. In the diagnosis of malignant diseases, MRCP was more sensitive (95.83%) as compared to ERCP (89%), CT scan (91.67%) and ultrasonography (78.17%). Regarding specificity MRCP (100%) was the high in comparison among ERCP (94%), CT (90.91%) and USG (96.15%).Conclusion: It is concluded that malignant obstructive jaundice is the commonest amongst the males. Ca head of pancreas was the commonest malignant etiology in malignant obstructive jaundice. MRCP was superior to among USG, CT scan or ERCP in studying the malignant lesions. J Bangladesh Coll Phys Surg 2021; 39: 233-240

It has been suggested that first embryo cleavage can be related with the embryonic–abembryonic axis at blastocyst stage in mice. Thus, cells of the 2-cell embryo might be already biased to form the inner cell mass or trophectoderm. This study was conducted to observe the possible effects of embryo biopsy on cell allocation patterns during embryo preimplantation in two different mouse strains and the effects of these patterns on further development. First, one blastomere of the 2-cell embryo was injected with a lipophilic tracer and cell allocation patterns were observed at blastocyst stage. Blastocysts were classified into orthogonal, deviant or random pattern. For the first experiment, embryos were biopsied at 8-cell stage and total cell counts (TCC) were annotated. Furthermore, non-biopsied blastocysts were transferred into foster mothers. Then, pups and their organs were weighed two weeks after birth. Random pattern was significantly recurrent (≈60%), against orthogonal (<22%) and deviant (<22%) patterns among groups. These patterns were not affected by biopsy procedure. However, TCC on deviant embryos were reduced after biopsy. Moreover, no differences were found between patterns for implantation rates, litter size, live offspring and organ weights (lungs, liver, pancreas and spleen). However, deviant pups presented heavier hearts and orthogonal pups presented lighter kidneys among the group. In conclusion, these results suggest that single blastomere removal does not disturb cell allocation patterns during pre-implantation. Nonetheless, the results suggest that embryos following different cell allocation patterns present different coping mechanisms against in vitro manipulations and further development might be altered.

The 16s-rRNA consists of hypervariable regions (V1 -V9) that demonstrate considerable sequence diversity among different bacteria. Species-specific sequences within a given hypervariable region constitute useful targets for diagnostic assays and other scientific investigations. Usually, the size of the gene region is 1500 bp, which is large enough to be analyzed using bioinformatic tools and applied for detection. The need to advance the knowledge of the 16s-rRNA gene segments in bacterial strains would allow better understanding and better diagnostic possibilities when dealing with them. This could also be the basis for investigation of pathogenic microorganisms.