Abstract
The 31st Annual Meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Immunology provided an excellent platform for basic and clinical scientists to brainstorm on current reproductive health issues such as repeated implantation and pregnancy failure, preterm birth, preeclampsia and genital tract infections such as HIV. The goal of the meeting was to foster cross-pollination of ideas as well as to encourage participation of young investigators in the field. The conference was preceded by the 4th Annual Post-Graduate Workshop with the theme of bringing bedside problems to the bench and facilitating collaboration between clinicians and basic scientists. Christopher Davies and Richard Bronson chaired the conference, which hosted approximately 180 delegates representing more than 26 countries across Asia, Australia, Latin America, Europe and North America.
The event began with the postgraduate workshop co-chaired by Charu Kaushic (McMaster University, ON, Canada) and Nazeeh Hanna (Winthrop University Hospital, NY, USA), which provided an up-to-date commentary on the role of infections in programming preterm birth. Ronald Lamont (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development [NICHD]/NIH, MD, USA) focused on the contribution of bacterial vaginosis to preterm birth. This session highlighted the value of early detection and screening, noting that infections at <20 weeks of pregnancy result in an eightfold increased risk of preterm birth. Efficacy of antibiotic treatment was also discussed: which antibiotics, who to target for treatment and when to give them in order to prevent infection-mediated preterm birth. Gil Mor (Yale University, CT, USA) presented data on the interaction between viral and bacterial infections and the balance of immune ‘education’ of the fetus. The speakers rounded off the workshop by addressing mechanistic insights and biodistribution of ascending infection in preclinical animal models and talks on the use of novel therapy in experimental models of preterm labor (Nazeeh Hanna, Winthrop University Hospital). The highlight of the postgraduate course was a session on innovative training programs in translational research led by Anh-Chi Le (Howard Hughes Medical School, MD, USA). This session identified barriers to improving clinical research perspectives, as well as the importance of research experiences for clinicians in an attempt to facilitate evidence-based translation of research from bench to bedside and vice-versa.
Surendra Sharma, President of the American Society for Reproductive Immunology (ASRI; IL, USA), inaugurated the congress and set the tone by highlighting the unique platform provided by the congregation of clinical and basic scientists from reproductive medicine and biology, infections and HIV transmission, large animal investigators and young researchers and investigators. On the opening day of the meeting, several outstanding talks in the plenary sessions covered innovative aspects of immune regulation of embryo implantation, fertilization, maternal–placental immune cross-talk with emphasis on angiogenesis and immunity, autoimmunity and female fertility and diseases. The sessions examined the therapeutic effects of HLA-G on tumor angiogenesis, the use of oocyte markers such as granulocyte colony-stimulating factor for in vitro fertilization, as well as the similarity of oocyte and cancer biomarkers as potential targets for diagnosis, drug treatment and vaccine development. These discussions underscored the potential for seamless integration of findings from one area of research to the other. Following sessions highlighted the potential implication of subclinical infections and perturbations in Toll-like receptor (TLR) signaling on uteroplacental blood flow, inflammation and angiogenesis, as well as role of uterine natural killer cells and other immune cells at the maternal–fetal interface on implantation rates and spiral artery remodeling. Suggesting that the ‘placenta is more like an immigration policy’, Lee Nelson (University of Washington, WA, USA) discussed the impact of maternal and fetal microchimerism on disease onset. In this session, Thierry Fournier (INSERM, Paris, France) presented data that suggested that the hCG gene is a direct target for the activated PPAR-γ pathway in response to cytomegalovirus viral infection and its detrimental effects on trophoblast invasion. The opening day ended with a poster session exhibiting a plethora of cutting-edge research covering multiple areas of reproductive biology and health.
The main highlight of the meeting was the Presidential Symposium, the theme of which was ‘new translational approaches to the female genital tract – prevention of diseases’. This session was designed to reveal the ‘soul’ of the ASRI by discussing the excellence in reproductive medicine with a focus on immunology, research on large animals, genital tract infections such as HIV, and the future of the society as represented by young investigators. This session included the 2010 AJRI Award Lecture by Roberto Romero (NICHD/NIH). This talk highlighted the beneficial outcome of a clinical trial of vaginal progesterone gel treatment in preventing preterm birth. These studies were based on the hypothesis that a shorter cervix coupled with local deficiency of progesterone at less than 22 weeks of gestation may lead to preterm birth. In the following lectures, Douglas Antczak (Cornell University, NY, USA) presented data on the role of major histocompatibility complex compatibility on trophoblast survival and consequent pregnancy success in large animals such as the horse, while Victor García-Martinez (University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, NC, USA) discussed the effectiveness of microbicides on the transmission of HIV in a humanized mouse model. Young investigators were represented by Mickie Cheng (University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA) who dazzled the audience with her presentation on autoimmune ovarian disease. Plenary sessions in the second half of the day brought such topics up for discussion as anti-phospholipid antibody-mediated thrombosis and fetal loss (Ware Branch, University of Utah, UT, USA), chorioamnionitis-induced neonatal mortality, and mechanisms of recurrent miscarriage. Shigeru Saito (University of Toyama, Toyama, Japan) complemented the talks by discussing the current efforts to develop rapid methods to detect intrauterine inflammation and intra-amniotic infection and to predict the prognosis of preterm birth. He presented data that suggest high cervical IL-8 and short cervical length as potential predictors of intrauterine inflammation and the use of yeast-derived Taq polymerase for a PCR-based bacterial detection system to identify patients with chorioamnionitis. The second day of the conference ended with another presentation by Romero on a rabbit model of inflammation-induced cerebral palsy, and the inability of antibiotics to ameliorate the role of infection on neurologic injury. Romero’s exciting findings that N-acetylcysteine-loaded dendrimer treatment can rescue normal neurobehavioral function in this model emphasized the potential application of nanotechnology in reproductive research.
The final day of the 31st Annual Meeting of the ASRI began with a plenary session focusing mainly on mucosal immune mediation of HIV infection. This session started with a presentation by Phil Smith (University of Alabama at Birmingham, AL, USA) in which he emphasized the role of vaginal dendritic cells in HIV-1 infections. Here he demonstrated, using a vaginal mucosal explant culture system, that CD11c+ dendritic cells play a role in transport of HIV-1. He also highlighted some of the current gaps in the field and future studies that are attempting to answer some critical questions. The next speaker, Deborah Anderson (Boston University, MA, USA), elaborated on the mechanisms and prevention of HIV transmission, while Robert Coombs (University of Washington) ended the session with a some of the technical challenges associated with sampling the HIV-1-infected male genital tract.
Tom Spencer (Texas A&M University, TX, USA) focused on conceptus–endometrial interactions. The talk given by Christopher Davies (Utah State University) covered a bovine model of MHC-incompatibility-induced pregnancy complications. This model utilized Fluidigm’s Biomark technology, a high-throughput transcriptome analysis system, in order to detect epigenetic markers of this process. Thaddeus Golos (University of Wisconsin, WI, USA) presented data on the immune regulation of trophoblast development in the rhesus macaque, and Keiichi Kumasawa (Osaka University, Osaka, Japan) and Vikki Abrahams (Yale University) discussed the effects of pravastin on preeclampsia, antiphospholipid antibody-mediated inflammation and trophoblast migration.
A highlight of the final day of the meeting was the John Gusdon Memorial New Investigator Award presentations. This year’s finalists were: Satyan Kalkunte (Brown University, RI, USA), Tania Nevers (Brown University), Bryce Warren (University of Kansas, KS, USA), Eliana Lippe (State University of Campinas, Campinas, Brazil and University of Kansas), Heloisa Rutigliano (Utah State University) and Sophia Virani (Queen’s University, ON, Canada). They presented exciting research work on the role of dysregulated transthyretin in preeclampsia, autoimmune regulator (AIRE) deficiency and infertility, the plasticity of the maternal–fetal interface, the impact of MHC incompatibility on fetal death in a bovine model, and neoangiogenesis in endometriosis. The winner was Tania Nevers, who presented her work ‘Do inflammatory triggers alter uterine regulatory T cells in adverse pregnancy outcomes?’ Congratulations to all the finalists, particularly to Tania and her mentor Surendra Sharma. The session ended with the J Christian Herr Award Lecture by Charu Kaushic (McMaster University). She presented her intriguing data on vaginal transmission of HIV, concentrating on the mechanisms by which HIV manipulates the vaginal mucosa to gain entry into the body undetected by the host immune system.
In keeping with the tradition of the society, there was an award banquet at the end of the meeting. Travel grants, outstanding new investigator awards and special awards were bestowed at the meeting. One of these was the American Journal of Reproductive Immunology Award (previously called the Blackwell Munskgaard Award), the highest award of the society, and conferred annually to a senior investigator who had made outstanding contributions to the field of reproductive immunology. This year’s winner was Donald Torry from Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, IL, USA. Chandrakanth Tayade (Faculty of Health Sciences, Queen’s University) was the recipient of the 2011 J Christian Herr Award. Recognizing the outstanding success of the conference, the President of the Society extended congratulations to the organizers Christopher Davies and Richard Bronson and their team on behalf of all the members of the society. Finally, it was declared that the 32nd Annual Meeting will be held as a joint meeting with the European Society for Reproductive Immunology and will take place in Hamburg, Germany in 2012. Petra Ark and Nazeeh Hanna are the organizing chairs and details of the meeting will be posted on the website www.theasri.org.
In summary, the meeting was unanimously declared a great success. We as young investigators hope that the future meetings recapitulate the same level of enthusiasm and excellence. This will certainly propel the young researchers to join the Reproductive Immunology family of investigators.
Financial & competing interests disclosure
The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.
No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.