Primary uterine angiosarcoma is extremely rare and has a poor prognosis. Angiosarcoma (malignant hemangioendothelioma or hemangiosarcoma) is defined as a tumor of the endothelial cells that lined the blood vessels. It represents less than 1% of all soft tissue sarcomas (1). Although angiosarcomas can arise in any region of the body, most arise in the skin or superficial soft tissue of the elder...

Loss of function mutations in the fumarate hydratase (fumarase, FH) gene were recently identified as the cause for dominantly inherited uterine and cutaneous leiomyomas and renal cell cancer. To further evaluate the role of FH in tumorigenesis, we screened FH mutations from tumor types seen in hereditary leiomyomatosis and renal cell cancer mutation carriers-41 uterine and 10 cutaneous leiomyom...

OBJECTIVES One of the proposed roles of progesterone is to prevent maternal immunological destruction of the allogeneic conceptus. Here, it was demonstrated that progesterone allows survival of a xenotransplant placed in the uterine lumen. METHODS Ovariectomized ewes, surgically prepared to have ligatures around each uterine horn, were given daily subcutaneous injections of 50 mg progesterone...

The uterus undergoes dynamic tissue remodeling throughout each reproductive cycle, which is regulated in part by the matrix metalloproteinases (MMP) system. The MMP system is comprised of the proteolytic factors, the MMPs, and their tissue inhibitors (TIMPs), which act in concert to modulate extracellular matrix turnover and cell behaviors and thus play a key role in many physiologic and pathol...

Menstruation-associated disorders negatively interfere with the quality of life of many women. However, mechanisms underlying pathogenesis of menstrual disorders remain poorly investigated up to date. Among others, this is based on a lack of appropriate pre-clinical animal models. We here employ a mouse menstruation model induced by priming mice with gonadal hormones and application of a physic...

Objects: To investigate the pathogenesis of amyloid presented in uterine leiomyoma. Methods: 36 uterine leiomyoma patients were recruited and divided into two groups according to Congo red staining results. 6 cases are Congo red staining-positive, and 30 cases Congo red staining-negative which represented amyloid positive and amyloid negative respectively. All patients’ serum total protein (TP)...

Arachidonic acid (ARA) is essential in felines because conversion of dietary linoleic acid (LA) to ARA is rate-limited by low Δ6-desaturase. Dietary γ-linolenic acid (GLA) may serve as an ARA precursor by-passing this initial rate-limiting step. This possibility was investigated using twenty-six adult female domestic shorthair cats divided into three groups and fed on complete and balanced diet...

Although leiomyosarcomas (LMSs) form the largest subgroup of soft tissue sarcomas (STSs), the efficacy of chemotherapy in this group is largely unclear, partly because older studies are contaminated with gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs). In this retrospective study we investigated the outcome of first line chemotherapy in 65 patients with unresectable or metastatic LMS. The overall respo...

Postpartum hemorrhage, the loss of more than 500 mL of blood after delivery, occurs in up to 18 percent of births and is the most common maternal morbidity in developed countries. Although risk factors and preventive strategies are dearly documented, not all cases are expected or avoidable. Uterine atony is responsible for most cases and can be managed with uterine massage in conjunction with o...

Aromatase CYP19 catalyzes the synthesis of estrogen from androgens in a tissue-specific manner. This enzyme is present in several tissues, including gonads, brain and fatty tissue. More recently, its presence has been described in vessels. Here, we describe the expression of aromatase in human uterine artery and compare its expression with that found in arteries of estrogen-dependent uterine le...