Objective: Our primary objective was to evaluate the endometrial changes before and after the transfer of endometrial mesenchymal stem cells (enMSCs) in a population of thinned endometrium women, with absence or hypo-responsiveness to estrogen and repeated implantation failure (RIF). The secondary objective was to evaluate the clinical outcomes of the intervention in terms of clinical pregnancy (CP), early abortions, ongoing pregnancy and live birth delivery rate (LBDR) per in vitro fertilization (IVF) cycle.Methods: A longitudinal and experimental study. The intervention was defined as "subendometrial inoculation of enMSCs," and the post-intervention changes were evaluated by the following variables: endometrial thickness (Eth), endometrial flow cytometry (enFC), endometrial histopathology (enHP) and endometrial immunohistochemistry (enIHQ). The variables were analyzed after the intervention (Post-treatment) regarding previous values (Pretreatment).Results: Eth values before and after treatment with enMSCs were 5.24±1.24 mm vs. 9.93±0.77 (p=0.000), respectively. Endometrial Flow Cytometry showed significant differences in favor of Normalized variables in the post-treatment assessment, associated with the pretreatment, LT/Li, LB/Li, NK/Li, CD8/CD3 + and CD4/CD8 (p≤0.015), respectively. Only two variables Li/PC and CD4/ CD3 had NS (p=0.167 and 0.118). A similar analysis was performed on enHP with an HP increase post-treatment (p=0.007). The CP rate was 79.31% (23/29), a live birth delivery rate per embryo transfer was 45.45% (10/22) and ongoing pregnancy 7/29 (24.14%).Conclusion: Subendometrial enMSCs inoculation produces a significant increase in endometrial thickness; normalize the enHP, enIHQ and enFC. As a result, IVF after treatment with enMSCs yields a higher rate of CP and LBDR.

Objective: The primary objective was to establish the endometrial predictors of clinical pregnancy in a population of repeated implantation failure with oocyte donation after specific endometrial treatment. The secondary one was to evaluate reproduction outcomes in terms of Implantation rate (IR), Clinical pregnancy (CP), Live birth delivery rate (LBDR) and Prematurity, in relation to normalization or no-normalization of the predictors. Methods: 66 patients were assigned to the study. We ran a Pipelle endometrial biopsy to investigate the endometrium lymphocyte population by Flow Cytometry and abnormal/normal patterns by histopathology in pre/post-treatment. We employed the binary logistic regression model to identify the predictors for CP. For the secondary objective, we assessed the clinical outcomes in function to the normalization or no normalization in post-treatment. Results: Endometrial histopathology and endometrial NK cell counts resulted in CP predictors (Wald chi 2 test ( p =0.044 and 0.001)), respectively. We had a higher IR, CP and LBDR when both predictors were normalized in comparison with no normalization ( p <0.001). There was a high percentage of prematurity in both normalized vs. non-normalized groups (34.4% (11/32) and 71.43% (5/7), respectively) without significant differences. Conclusion: Endometrial histopathology and endometrial NK cell counts showed that they are valid predictors of pregnancy outcome in repeated implantation failure after treatment. In post-treatment, the pregnancy outcomes were significantly higher in the presence of both normalized predictors. Pregnancy rates were zero in the no-normalization of both predictors. There was a high percentage of prematurity in both groups.

Laminitis in horses is often associated with endocrine disorders, especially the pituitary pars intermedia dysfunction (PPID) in older animals. Morphologic exams of the laminar tissue of the hoof were performed in two horses with suspected PPID, with no clinical signs of laminitis. Changes compatible with laminitis of endocrine origin were observed, such as rounding of the nuclei of the basal cells, thinning and stretching of the secondary epidermal laminae and tissue proliferation. PPID horses with no clinical signs of laminitis may be affected by lesions of the laminar tissue of the hoof that compromise the integrity of the dermal-epidermal junction and may develop clinical symptoms of the disease. It has been suggested that the development stage of endocrine laminitis is longer, but further studies should be conducted to confirm it.Keywords: laminitis, metabolic syndrome, Cushing's syndrome, endocrine disorders, pituitary adenoma RESUMO A laminite em cavalos está frequentemente associada a distúrbios endócrinos, como a disfunção da pars intermedia da pituitária (PPID) em animais mais velhos. Exames morfológicos do tecido laminar do

I would like to thank firstly to my family for supporting me unconditionally in all my projects, in especial to my mother, who has been the main responsible of the person I am today. Secondly, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisors: Andrew van Eps, for the patience and generosity he always showed to me when it came to sharing his knowledge; Chris Pollitt, for replying that first email 3 years ago, which was the beginning of this project, for sharing his knowledge and vast experience with this young student, and for encouraging me to do more research; Martin Sillence, for trusting in my capacities and for having always the time to catch up, have a drink and give me his advice. I must thank all the people involved in this project along these 2 years: Claire Underwood, for allowing me to be part of her experiments and for all the help she gave me, especially when it was required at the very last minute; to Rajesh Gupta, for all the time and Buddhist tales shared during my training at CARF and to all the UQ and QUT staff who contributed in many different ways to this work. Finally, I want to express my sincere appreciation to all my friends, and especially to Ana and Carlos, who became my temporary family for a while and offered me a hand from the very beginning.