Molecular Research of Endometrial Pathophysiology

The endometrium has been the subject of intense research in a variety of clinical settings, because of its importance in the reproductive process and its role in women’s health. In the past 15 years, significant efforts have been invested in defining the molecular phenotype of the receptive phase endometrium as well as of various endometrial pathologies. Although this has generated a wealth of information on the molecular landscape of human endometrium, there is a need to complement this information in light of the novel methodologies and innovative technical approaches. The focus of this International Journal of Molecular Sciences Special Issue is on molecular and cellular mechanisms of endometrium and endometrium-related disorders. The progress made in the molecular actions of steroids, in the metabolism of steroids and intracrinology, in endometrial intracellular pathways, in stem cells biology, as well as in the molecular alterations underlying endometrium-related pathologies has been the focus of the reviews and papers included

Spin-orbital coupling in a triplet superconductor-ferromagnet junction

We study a novel type of coupling between spin and orbital degrees of freedom which appears at triplet superconductor-ferromagnet interfaces. Using a self-consistent spatially-dependent mean-field theory, we show that increasing the angle between the ferromagnetic moment and the triplet vector order parameter enhances or suppresses the p-wave gap close to the interface, according as the gap antinodes are parallel or perpendicular to the boundary, respectively. The associated change in condensation energy establishes an orbitally-dependent preferred orientation for the magnetization. When both gap components are present, as in a chiral superconductor, we observe a first-order transition between different moment orientations as a function of the exchange field strength.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures and Supplemental Material (3 pages