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Roberto Romero

Bio: Roberto Romero is an academic researcher from National Institutes of Health. The author has contributed to research in topics: Amniotic fluid & Chorioamnionitis. The author has an hindex of 151, co-authored 1516 publications receiving 108321 citations. Previous affiliations of Roberto Romero include University of Michigan & Weizmann Institute of Science.


Papers
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a mouse model was used to determine whether uterine natural killer (uNK) cell cytotoxic activation induces infection/inflammation-associated preterm labor and delivery.
Abstract: Objective The purpose of this study was to determine in a mouse model whether uterine natural killer (uNK) cell cytotoxic activation induces infection/inflammation-associated preterm labor and delivery. Study Design Wild type or interleukin (IL)-10 –/– mice were injected intraperitoneally with lipopolysaccharide on gestational day 14. Mice were either killed for collection of uteroplacental tissue, spleen, and serum or allowed to deliver. Uteroplacental tissue was used for histology and characterization of uNK cells. Results Low-dose lipopolysaccharide treatment triggered preterm labor and delivery in IL-10 –/– , but not wild type mice, in a manner independent of progesterone levels. Preterm labor and delivery in IL-10 –/– mice was associated with an increased number and placental infiltration of cytotoxic uNK cells and placental cell death. Depletion of NK cells or tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α neutralization in these mice restored term delivery. Furthermore, TNF-α neutralization prevented uNK cell infiltration and placental cell apoptosis. Conclusion The uNK cell-TNF-α–IL-10 axis plays an important role in the genesis of infection/inflammation-induced preterm labor/delivery.

61 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The aim of this study was to determine whether the risk of early spontaneous preterm delivery in asymptomatic women with a sonographic cervical length of ≤ 15 mm in the mid‐trimester changes as a function of gestational age at diagnosis.
Abstract: Objective—The aim of this study was to determine whether the risk of early spontaneous preterm delivery (sPTD) in asymptomatic women with a sonographic cervical length ≤15 mm in the mid-trimester changes as a function of gestational age at diagnos Methods—This cohort study included 109 asymptomatic patients with a sonographic sonographic cervical length ≤15 mm diagnosed at 14–24 weeks of gestation. Women with a multifetal gestation, cerclage, and those with a cervical dilatation >2 cm were excluded. The study population was stratified by gestational age at diagnosis (<20 weeks vs. 20–24 weeks) and by cervical length (≤10 mm vs. 11–15 mm). The primary outcome variables were PTD <28 and <32 weeks’ gestation and the diagnosis-to-delivery interval. Results—1) The median gestational age at diagnosis of a short cervix before 20 weeks and at 20–24 weeks was 18.9 and 22.7 weeks, respectively; 2) women diagnosed before 20 weeks had a higher rate of sPTD at <28 weeks (76.9% vs. 30.9%; p<0.001) and at <32 weeks (80.8% vs. 48.1%; p=0.004), and a shorter median diagnosis-to-delivery interval (21 vs. 61.5 days, p=0.003) than those diagnosed at 20–24 weeks; 3) The rate of amniotic fluid “sludge” was higher among patients diagnosed at <20 weeks of gestation than those diagnosed between 20 and 24 weeks (92.3% vs. 48.2%;p<0.001). Conclusions—Asymptomatic women with a sonographic cervical length ≤15 mm diagnosed before 20 weeks have a dramatic and significantly higher risk of early preterm delivery than women diagnosed at 20–24 weeks. These findings can be helpful to physicians in counseling these patients, and may suggest different mechanisms of disease leading to a sonographic short cervix before or after 20 weeks of gestation.

61 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This work investigated whether amniotic fluid neutrophils could phagocytize bacteria found in the amniotics cavity of women with intra‐amniotic infection.
Abstract: Problem Neutrophils are capable of performing phagocytosis, a primary mechanism for microbial killing. Intra-amniotic infection is characterized by an influx of neutrophils into the amniotic cavity. Herein, we investigated whether amniotic fluid neutrophils could phagocytize bacteria found in the amniotic cavity of women with intra-amniotic infection. Methods Amniotic fluid neutrophils from women with intra-amniotic infection were visualized by transmission electron microscopy (n=6). The phagocytic activity of amniotic fluid neutrophils from women with intra-amniotic infection and/or inflammation (n=10) or peripheral neutrophils from healthy individuals (controls, n=3) was tested using ex vivo phagocytosis assays coupled with live imaging. Phagocytosis by amniotic fluid neutrophils was also visualized by confocal microscopy (n=10) as well as scanning and transmission electron microscopy (n=5). Results (i) Intra-amniotic infection-related bacteria including cocci (eg Streptococcus agalactiae), bacilli (eg Bacteriodes fragilis and Prevotella spp.), and small bacteria without a cell wall (eg Ureaplasma urealyticum) were found inside of amniotic fluid neutrophils; (ii) peripheral neutrophils (controls) rapidly phagocytized S. agalactiae, U. urealyticum, Gardnerella vaginalis, and Escherichia coli; (iii) amniotic fluid neutrophils rapidly phagocytized S. agalactiae and G. vaginalis; and (iv) amniotic fluid neutrophils slowly phagocytized U. urealyticum and E. coli; yet, the process of phagocytosis of the genital mycoplasma was lengthier. Conclusion Amniotic fluid neutrophils can phagocytize bacteria found in the amniotic cavity of women with intra-amniotic infection, namely S. agalactiae, U. urealyticum, G. vaginalis, and E. coli. Yet, differences in the rapidity of phagocytosis were observed among the studied microorganisms. These findings provide a host defense mechanism whereby amniotic fluid neutrophils can kill microbes invading the amniotic cavity.

61 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: To evaluate the microbial load and the inflammatory response in the distal and proximal parts of the cervical mucus plug, the objective was to establish a baseline level of inflammation and show clear trends in both the microbial and inflammatory response.
Abstract: Objective To evaluate the microbial load and the inflammatory response in the distal and proximal parts of the cervical mucus plug. Design Experimental research. Population Twenty women with a normal, singleton pregnancy. Sample Vaginal swabs and specimens from the distal and proximal parts of the cervical mucus plug. Methods Immunohistochemistry, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, quantitative polymerase chain reaction and histology. Results The total bacterial load (16S rDNA) was significantly lower in the cervical mucus plug compared with the vagina (p = 0.001). Among women harboring Ureaplasma parvum, the median genome equivalents/g were 1574 (interquartile range 2526) in the proximal part, 657 (interquartile range 1620) in the distal part and 60 240 (interquartile range 96 386) in the vagina. Histological examinations and quantitative polymerase chain reaction revealed considerable amounts of lactobacilli and inflammatory cells in both parts of the cervical mucus plug. The matrix metalloproteinase-8 concentration was decreased in the proximal part of the plug compared with the distal part (p = 0.08). Conclusion The cervical mucus plug inhibits, but does not block, the passage of Ureaplasma parvum during its ascending route from the vagina through the cervical canal.

61 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The placenta is a highly selective barrier against the hematogenous dissemination of infectious agents, but despite the presence of seemingly intact physical and immunologic barriers, infections nonetheless occur.
Abstract: PROBLEM: The placenta is a highly selective barrier against the hematogenous dissemination of infectious agents Despite the presence of seemingly intact physical and immunologic barriers, infections nonetheless occur These observations prompted the examination of placental tissue, amnion, and chorion for previously unrecognized protective mechanisms METHOD OF STUDY: Messenger RNA from term placenta, amnion, and chorion were reverse transcribed using a 3' RACE adapter 3' rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE)-polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was conducted on cDNA from these tissues to detect the presence of human defensins Southern analysis and partial sequence analysis were subsequently performed to confirm identity RESULTS: PCR amplification of placental, amnion, and chorion cDNA yielded a 468-bp product and a weakly detectable band of 300 bp Southern analysis demonstrated two corresponding hybridizing bands in the placenta, amnion, and chorion but not from a negative cDNA control Partial sequence analysis of the 468-bp product from placenta confirmed the presence of either defensin 1 or 3 in human placenta CONCLUSIONS: The human placenta, amnion, and chorion express defensins at the level of transcription These findings suggest that a novel and previously unrecognized mechanism of protecting the fetus against infection may be present within these tissues

61 citations


Cited by
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The philosophy and design of the limma package is reviewed, summarizing both new and historical features, with an emphasis on recent enhancements and features that have not been previously described.
Abstract: limma is an R/Bioconductor software package that provides an integrated solution for analysing data from gene expression experiments. It contains rich features for handling complex experimental designs and for information borrowing to overcome the problem of small sample sizes. Over the past decade, limma has been a popular choice for gene discovery through differential expression analyses of microarray and high-throughput PCR data. The package contains particularly strong facilities for reading, normalizing and exploring such data. Recently, the capabilities of limma have been significantly expanded in two important directions. First, the package can now perform both differential expression and differential splicing analyses of RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) data. All the downstream analysis tools previously restricted to microarray data are now available for RNA-seq as well. These capabilities allow users to analyse both RNA-seq and microarray data with very similar pipelines. Second, the package is now able to go past the traditional gene-wise expression analyses in a variety of ways, analysing expression profiles in terms of co-regulated sets of genes or in terms of higher-order expression signatures. This provides enhanced possibilities for biological interpretation of gene expression differences. This article reviews the philosophy and design of the limma package, summarizing both new and historical features, with an emphasis on recent enhancements and features that have not been previously described.

22,147 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The latest version of STRING more than doubles the number of organisms it covers, and offers an option to upload entire, genome-wide datasets as input, allowing users to visualize subsets as interaction networks and to perform gene-set enrichment analysis on the entire input.
Abstract: Proteins and their functional interactions form the backbone of the cellular machinery. Their connectivity network needs to be considered for the full understanding of biological phenomena, but the available information on protein-protein associations is incomplete and exhibits varying levels of annotation granularity and reliability. The STRING database aims to collect, score and integrate all publicly available sources of protein-protein interaction information, and to complement these with computational predictions. Its goal is to achieve a comprehensive and objective global network, including direct (physical) as well as indirect (functional) interactions. The latest version of STRING (11.0) more than doubles the number of organisms it covers, to 5090. The most important new feature is an option to upload entire, genome-wide datasets as input, allowing users to visualize subsets as interaction networks and to perform gene-set enrichment analysis on the entire input. For the enrichment analysis, STRING implements well-known classification systems such as Gene Ontology and KEGG, but also offers additional, new classification systems based on high-throughput text-mining as well as on a hierarchical clustering of the association network itself. The STRING resource is available online at https://string-db.org/.

10,584 citations

01 Jun 2012
TL;DR: SPAdes as mentioned in this paper is a new assembler for both single-cell and standard (multicell) assembly, and demonstrate that it improves on the recently released E+V-SC assembler and on popular assemblers Velvet and SoapDeNovo (for multicell data).
Abstract: The lion's share of bacteria in various environments cannot be cloned in the laboratory and thus cannot be sequenced using existing technologies. A major goal of single-cell genomics is to complement gene-centric metagenomic data with whole-genome assemblies of uncultivated organisms. Assembly of single-cell data is challenging because of highly non-uniform read coverage as well as elevated levels of sequencing errors and chimeric reads. We describe SPAdes, a new assembler for both single-cell and standard (multicell) assembly, and demonstrate that it improves on the recently released E+V-SC assembler (specialized for single-cell data) and on popular assemblers Velvet and SoapDeNovo (for multicell data). SPAdes generates single-cell assemblies, providing information about genomes of uncultivatable bacteria that vastly exceeds what may be obtained via traditional metagenomics studies. SPAdes is available online ( http://bioinf.spbau.ru/spades ). It is distributed as open source software.

10,124 citations

01 Jan 2014
TL;DR: These standards of care are intended to provide clinicians, patients, researchers, payors, and other interested individuals with the components of diabetes care, treatment goals, and tools to evaluate the quality of care.
Abstract: XI. STRATEGIES FOR IMPROVING DIABETES CARE D iabetes is a chronic illness that requires continuing medical care and patient self-management education to prevent acute complications and to reduce the risk of long-term complications. Diabetes care is complex and requires that many issues, beyond glycemic control, be addressed. A large body of evidence exists that supports a range of interventions to improve diabetes outcomes. These standards of care are intended to provide clinicians, patients, researchers, payors, and other interested individuals with the components of diabetes care, treatment goals, and tools to evaluate the quality of care. While individual preferences, comorbidities, and other patient factors may require modification of goals, targets that are desirable for most patients with diabetes are provided. These standards are not intended to preclude more extensive evaluation and management of the patient by other specialists as needed. For more detailed information, refer to Bode (Ed.): Medical Management of Type 1 Diabetes (1), Burant (Ed): Medical Management of Type 2 Diabetes (2), and Klingensmith (Ed): Intensive Diabetes Management (3). The recommendations included are diagnostic and therapeutic actions that are known or believed to favorably affect health outcomes of patients with diabetes. A grading system (Table 1), developed by the American Diabetes Association (ADA) and modeled after existing methods, was utilized to clarify and codify the evidence that forms the basis for the recommendations. The level of evidence that supports each recommendation is listed after each recommendation using the letters A, B, C, or E.

9,618 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A short cervical length and a raised cervical-vaginal fetal fibronectin concentration are the strongest predictors of spontaneous preterm birth.

6,275 citations