Research

Dr. Stumpf's ongoing collaborations

Dr. Clancy's ongoing collaborations

Recently funded! Dr. Clancy's collaboration with Drs. Roger Pierson and Angela Baerwald of the University of Saskatchewan, SK Canada: "Variation in endometrial function in normo-ovulatory and PCOS women." This project begins in the summer of 2009.

The proposed project is a study of endometrial function and the factors that impact it. This project will use archived blood serum samples and data spreadsheets of endometrial thickness through the menstrual cycle from previous studies by two collaborators at the University of Saskatchewan (Baerwald and Pierson). These studies were performed on normal women and women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) from Canada.

The endometrium, or lining of the uterus, is essential to many reproductive processes, but has been overlooked both in the study of normal and pathological individuals. There are two aims to this project, intended to improve understanding of endometrial variation.

Hypothesis-driven aim: The proposed project will test the ways in which energy availability and inflammation impact endometrial thickness over the menstrual cycle. Research assistant Talia Melber will perform enzyme immunoassays to determine biomarkers for energy availability and inflammation. These data, along with subject BMI and age, will be analyzed with daily measurements of endometrial thickness, to test the following hypotheses: 1) Energy availability is positively correlated with endometrial thickness, 2) Inflammation is negatively correlated with endometrial thickness, and 3) Age is negatively correlated with endometrial thickness.
Exploratory aim: The project will also look at data from these daily ultrasounds in order to try and understand patterns in endometrial behavior. The endometrium proliferates in the first half of the cycle, and has been assumed to plateau until menses. Recent work from the PI suggests far more variation, but datasets of daily endometrial measurements are difficult to acquire. This dataset represents a rare opportunity to look into the nature of endometrial behavior through the second half of the cycle. These data will make it possible to test the following: 1) endometrial behavior in the latter half of the cycle does not universally plateau, and 2) significant variation occurs through the window of implantation (about six days after ovulation).

Dr. Stumpf's ongoing collaborations (back to top)

Coming soon.

Dr. Clancy's ongoing collaborations (back to top)

Roger Pierson and Angela Baerwald, University of Saskatchewan. Variation in endometrial function in normo-ovulatory and PCOS women. The proposed project is a study of endometrial function and the factors that impact it. This project will use archived blood serum samples and data spreadsheets of endometrial thickness through the menstrual cycle from previous studies by two collaborators at the University of Saskatchewan (Baerwald and Pierson). These studies were performed on normal women and women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) from Canada. This project begins in the summer of 2009.

Brendan Harley, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Endometrial model for vascularization. The development of large biomaterials for tissue engineering applications is limited by the maximum capacity for diffusion and/or mass transport to support the cells that live and grow within the material. The endometrium is an ideal model system for quantitative exploration of extrinsic regulators of controlled vascularization. Rapid, organized vascular development and remodeling takes place during endometrial cycles, and further extensive remodeling is the hallmark of embryo implantation and first trimester fetal growth, particularly in humans. This project is being developed as a collaboration between the Laboratory for Evolutionary Endocrinology (LEE) and the Engineered Cellular Microenvionments & Microstructures (ECM2) Laboratory at the University of Illinois.

Gillian Bentley and Shanthi Muttukrishna, University of Durham, Durham UK. Variability in endometrial thickness in IVF patients. This project involves the analysis of a dataset of women from a London infertility clinic. Assisted reproductive technologies generally involve the administration of synthetic hormones at supraphysiological levels; this research observes the variation in endometrial thickness in women undergoing assisted reproduction and its relationship with demographic and energetic factors. The data was collected in 2006 from clinical records and is beginning to be analyzed.