Adenomyosis, defined as ectopic endometrial tissue within the myometrium, can often be misdiagnosed as multiple uterine leiomyomata or endometrial thickening. We therefore performed a combined mRNA and long noncoding (lnc)RNA microarray and bioinformatic analysis of eutopic and ectopic endometria in women with adenomyosis to better understand its pathogenesis and help in the development of a semi-invasive diagnostic test. A total of 586 mRNAs were increased and 305 mRNAs decreased in the ectopic endometrium of adenomyosis compared with the eutopic endometrium, while 388 lncRNA transcripts were up-regulated and 188 down-regulated in ectopic compared with paired eutopic endometrial tissue. Bioinformatic analysis suggested a series of metabolic and molecular abnormalities in adenomyosis, which have many similarities with endometriosis. Furthermore, our study constitutes the first known report of lncRNA expression patterns in human adenomyosis ectopic and eutopic endometrial tissue.

The ubiquitin‐like, containing PHD and RING finger domains, 1 (UHRF1) protein recognizes DNA methylation and histone modification and plays a critical role in epigenetic regulation. Recently, UHRF1 was shown to have a role in DNA methylation in oocytes and early embryos. Here, we reveal that maternal UHRF1 determines the quality of mouse oocytes. We generated oocyte‐specific Uhrf1‐knockout mice and found that females were sterile, and few maternal UHRF1‐null embryos developed into blastocysts. The UHRF1‐null oocytes had an increased incidence of aneuploidy and DNA damage. In addition to defective DNA methylation, histone modification was affected during oogenesis, with UHRF1‐null germinal vesicle and metaphase II‐stage oocytes exhibiting reduced global histone H3 lysine 9 dimethylation levels and elevated acetylation of histone H4 lysine 12. Taken together, our results suggest that UHRF1 plays an important role in determining oocyte quality and affects epigenetic regulation of oocyte maturation as a maternal protein, which is crucial for embryo developmental potential. Further exploration of the biologic function and underlying mechanisms of maternal UHRF1 will enhance our understanding of the maternal control of the oocyte and early embryonic development.—Cao, Y., Li, M., Liu, F., Ni, X., Wang, S., Zhang, H., Sui, X., Huo, R. Deletion of maternal UHRF1 severely reduces mouse oocyte quality and causes developmental defects in preimplantation embryos. FASEB J. 33, 8294–8305 (2019). http://www.fasebj.org

The present study assessed the influences of the normal sperm morphology rate on the clinical and neonatal outcomes of conventional in vitro fertilisation cycles. This retrospective study analysed 427 and 2,728 cycles from the normal sperm morphology rate <4% and ≥4% group respectively. The clinical (total fertilisation failure, clinical pregnancy, implantation and abortion) and neonatal (sex, gestational age, preterm birth, birthweight, low birth weight, live births and birth defects of newborns) outcomes were compared. The rate of total fertilisation failure in the normal sperm morphology rate <4% group was significantly higher compared with that in the normal sperm morphology rate ≥4% group (2.8% versus 1.2%, p = .012). Total fertilisation failure was completely resolved by early rescue intracytoplasmic sperm injection. The clinical pregnancy, implantation and abortion rates were not significantly different between the two groups. Additionally, the sex, preterm birth, low birth weight, live births and birth defect rates, gestational age and birthweight of newborns were not significantly different between the two groups. Thus, normal sperm morphology rate <4% significantly increased the total fertilisation failure rate but did not affect the clinical or neonatal outcomes.

Many pregnant women suffer miscarriages during early gestation, but the description of these early pregnancy losses (EPL) can be somewhat confusing because of the complexities of early development. Thus, the identification of proteins with different expression profiles related to early pregnancy loss is essential for understanding the comprehensive pathophysiological mechanism. In this study, we report a gel-free tandem mass tags- (TMT-) labeling based proteomic analysis of five placental villous tissues from patients with early pregnancy loss and five from normal pregnant women. The application of this method resulted in the identification of 3423 proteins and 19647 peptides among the patient group and the matched normal control group. Qualitative and quantitative proteomic analysis revealed 51 proteins to be differentially abundant between the two groups (≥1.2-fold, Student's t-test, P < 0.05). To obtain an overview of the biological functions of the proteins whose expression levels altered significantly in EPL group, gene ontology analysis was performed. We also investigated the twelve proteins with a difference over 1.5-fold using pathways analysis. Our results demonstrate that the gel-free TMT-based proteomic approach allows the quantification of differences in protein expression levels, which is useful for obtaining molecular insights into early pregnancy loss.

BackgroundTo evaluate the impact of follicle-flushing during oocyte collection on embryo development potential retrospectively.MethodsA total of 1714 cases, including 133 who experienced retrieval difficulty (repeated follicle-flushing) on the day of oocyte retrieval (difficulty group) and the control 1581 cases (control group), were assessed in this retrospective study. The number of oocytes recovered, two pro-nuclei fertilization (2PN-fertilization), day 3 good-quality embryo and day 5/6 blastocyst utilization rates were compared between the difficulty group and control group correspondingly. Embryo implantation, clinical pregnancy and neonatal outcomes were further analyzed between the two groups in the fresh day− 3 embryo transfer cycles.ResultsThe number of oocytes recovered in the difficulty group (9.08 ± 4.65) were significantly reduced compared with the control group (12.13 ± 5.27),P < 0.001; The 2PN-fertilization, day 3 good-quality embryo and blastocyst utilization rates were significantly lower in the difficulty group compared with controls (71.7% vs. 75.7%; 52.7% vs. 56.5%; 31.9% vs. 37.0%, all P < 0.05). Embryo implantation in the difficulty group was 53.2%, which was lower than the control value of 58.7%, although not reaching statistical significance. The rate of fresh embryo transfer cycles in the difficulty group was lower than normal ones (51.88% vs. 61.99%, P = 0.026). The pregnancy and live birth rates were similar between the two groups. But the rate of spontaneous miscarriages of the difficulty group was higher than the control group, although not reaching statistical significance. The neonatal outcomes had no statistical difference between the two groups.ConclusionsOocyte retrieval difficulty, which include repeated flushing and the corresponded extending time required for oocyte recovery, significantly reduced day 3 good-quality embryo and blastocyst utilization rates of these patients. But the live birth rate had no difference between the difficulty group and the normal ones.