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Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) rapidly spreads worldwide and causes more suffering. The relation about the aggravation of inguinal pain and COVID-19 was unclear in patients with total hip arthroplasty (THA). This study aimed to evaluate the risk of groin pain aggravation in short-term THA patients after COVID-19. Methods: Between 2020 and 2022, 129 patients with THA who were affected COVID-19 were enrolled. A short-standardized questionnaire was administered during follow-up to inquire about the aggravation of groin ache before and after SARS-COV-2 affection. Furthermore, we evaluated the potential association between the presence of increased pain and various factors, including age, gender, body mass index, diagnosis, and length of hospital stay. Results: The case-crossover study revealed an increased risk of inguinal soreness aggravation when comparing 8 weeks after COVID-19 with 12 weeks before COVID-19 (Relative risk [RR], 9.5; 95% Confidence intervals [CI], 2.259–39.954). For COVID-19 positive patients, multivariate analysis showed length of stay was an independent factor significantly associated with increased risk of aggravation of groin pain (Odds ratio [OR], 1.26; 95%CI, 1.03–1.55, p = 0.027). Conclusion: This study confirms the association between COVID-19 and the exacerbation of soreness in the groin region in THA patients and extended length of stay is a possible contributing factor. This study expands the current literature by investigating the risk of aggravation of inguinal pain in patients with THA after COVID-19, providing valuable insights into postoperative outcomes in this specific population. Trial registration This retrospective study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Shanghai general hospital (No.2023-264). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Many factors can affect the recurrence of endometriosis after surgery, however, whether endometriotic cyst fluid contributes to endometriosis recurrence after surgical excision of ovarian endometriomas remains unclear. The objective of this study was to determine the presence of endometrial cells in ovarian endometriosis cyst fluid and the potential differences between these cells and those in the cyst wall. Methods: Samples of cyst fluid (n = 39) and drainage fluid (n = 14) were collected from patients with ovarian endometriomas undergoing laparoscopic surgery. Drainage fluid from 14 patients without endometriosis was used as a control. The presence of endometrial cells in cyst fluid and drainage fluid was determined by cell culture in vitro and immunostaining. In addition, cyst fluid endometrial fragments and viscosity were analysed by transcriptome sequencing analysis and apparent diffusion coefficients, respectively. An animal model was used to confirm the ability of endometrial cells in cyst fluid to form new lesions. Results: We found endometrium-like tissues in 71.8% (28/39) of cyst fluid and 71.4% (10/14) of drainage fluid samples by histopathological examination, and the presence of endometrioid tissue in cyst fluid was related to the viscosity of the cyst fluid. The living endometrial cells in cyst fluid and drainage fluid were confirmed by cell culture in vitro and immunostaining. Moreover, the adhesion ability of endometrial fragments in cyst fluid was significantly higher than that of ectopic tissues in the cyst wall (P < 0.05). In addition, living endometrial cells in the cyst fluid were able to adhere and alive in the animal model. Conclusions: The existence of living endometrial cells with high adhesion ability in ovarian endometriotic cyst fluid may contribute to the recurrence of endometriosis after surgical excision of endometriomas due to cyst fluid outflow during the surgical procedure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Osteoarthritis (OA) is widely recognized as the most common chronic joint disease accompanied by progressive cartilage and subchondral bone damage. Toddalolactone (TOD), a natural compound extracted from Toddalia asiatica (L.) Lam., has been widely used in the treatment of stroke, rheumatoid arthritis, and oedema. Nevertheless, what TOD acts as in the pathogenesis and progression of OA hasn't been reported. In this investigation, we have aimed to determine how TOD affects OA in vitro and in vivo. Methods: LPS (10 µg/ml) and IL-1β (10 ng/ml) were employed to induce chondrocyte inflammation or RANKL to induce osteoclast differentiation in bone marrow derived macrophages (BMMs). The effects of TOD on chondrocyte inflammation and osteoclast differentiation were evaluated. Anterior cruciate ligament transection (ACLT) was performed to develop an OA animal model and study the effects of TOD. Results: We found that TOD inhibited the expression of inflammatory and catabolic mediators (IL-6, IL-8, TNF-α, MMP2, MMP9, and MMP13) in inflammatory chondrocytes in vitro. Furthermore, TOD was proven to inhibit RANKL-induced-osteoclastogenesis and inhibit the expression of osteoclast marker genes. Our data also confirmed that TOD suppressed the destruction of articular cartilage and osteoclastogenesis via inhibiting the activation of NF-κB and MAPK signalling pathways. In the ACLT mouse model, we found that TOD attenuated cartilage erosion and inhibited bone resorption. Conclusions: These results showed that TOD can be adopted as a potential therapeutic agent for OA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Endometriosis is a refractory and recurrent disease and it affects nearly 10% of reproductive-aged women and 40% of infertile patients. The commonly accepted theory for endometriosis is retrograde menstruation where endometrial tissues invade into peritoneal cavity and fail to be cleared due to immune dysfunction. Therefore, the comprehensive understanding of immunologic microenvironment of peritoneal cavity deserves further investigation for the previous studies mainly focus on one or several immune cells. Results: High-quality transcriptomes were from peritoneal fluid samples of patients with endometriosis and control, and firstly subjected to 10 × genomics single-cell RNA-sequencing. We acquired the single-cell transcriptomes of 10,280 cells from endometriosis sample and 7250 cells from control sample with an average of approximately 63,000 reads per cell. A comprehensive map of overall cells in peritoneal fluid was first exhibited. We unveiled the heterogeneity of immune cells and discovered new cell subtypes including T cell receptor positive (TCR+) macrophages, proliferating macrophages and natural killer dendritic cells in peritoneal fluid, which was further verified by double immunofluorescence staining and flow cytometry. Pseudo-time analysis showed that the response of macrophages to the menstrual debris might follow the certain differentiation trajectory after endometrial tissues invaded into the peritoneal cavity, that is, from antigen presentation to pro-inflammation, then to chemotaxis and phagocytosis. Our analyses also mirrored the dysfunctions of immune cells including decreased phagocytosis and cytotoxic activity and elevated pro-inflammatory and chemotactic effects in endometriosis. Conclusion: TCR+ macrophages, proliferating macrophages and natural killer dendritic cells are firstly reported in human peritoneal fluid. Our results also revealed that immune dysfunction happens in peritoneal fluid of endometriosis, which may be responsible for the residues of invaded menstrual debris. It provided a large-scale and high-dimensional characterization of peritoneal microenvironment and offered a useful resource for future development of immunotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Endometriosis is defined as a chronic inflammatory disease. Recent studies have shown that increased coagulation parameters including fibrinogen and platelets are associated with endometriosis. The objective of this study was to determine the levels of inflammatory markers and coagulation parameters and their correlations in women with endometriomas compared to those with benign ovarian cysts or normal pelvic anatomy.Methods: Between June 2015 and June 2017, a total of 548 women who underwent laparoscopic/laparotomic surgery for ovarian endometriomas (OMA group, n = 226), non-endometriosis benign ovarian cysts (Cyst group, n = 210) and tubal reanastomosis (Control group, n = 112) were recruited in this study. Inflammatory markers including c-reactive protein (CRP), neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) and coagulation parameters including platelet count, thrombin time (TT), prothrombin time (PT), activated partial thromboplastin time, and plasma fibrinogen as well as CA-125 were determined.Results: Compared with Cyst group and Control group, TT and PT in OMA group were significantly shorter and plasma fibrinogen levels were significantly higher (P < 0.05). Moreover, the levels of plasma fibrinogen were positively correlated with CRP, NLR and PLR (P < 0.05). In addition, the confidence intervals for the area under the curve (AUC) for CA-125 × fibrinogen were significantly higher than those for CA-125 (0.904-0.952 vs. 0.899-0.949) in the diagnosis of endometrioma.Conclusions: These results indicate that women with endometriomas demonstrate a hypercoagulable status due to the inflammatory nature of endometriosis. The combined determination for CA-125 and fibrinogen demonstrate a higher area under the curve than the single detection of CA-125 in those with endometriomas compared to these with benign ovarian cysts.Trial Registration: This study was approved by the Human Ethics Committee of the Women's Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University (No.20170174) and all women provided written informed consent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]