Replacement of connexin43 by connexin26 in transgenic mice leads to dysfunctional reproductive organs and slowed ventricular conduction in the heart

BACKGROUND: In order to further distinguish unique from general functions of connexin43, we have generated mice in which the coding region of connexin43 was replaced by that of connexin26. RESULTS: Heterozygous mothers showed impaired mammary gland development responsible for decreased lactation and early postnatal death of the pups which could be partially rescued by wild type foster mothers. Only about 17% of the homozygous connexin43 knock-in connexin26 mice instead of 25% expected according to Mendelian inheritance, were born and only 6% survived to day 21 post partum and longer. Neonatal and adult connexin43 knock-in connexin26 mice exhibited slowed ventricular conduction in their hearts, i.e. similar but delayed electrophysiological abnormalities as connexin43 deficient mice. Furthermore, connexin43 knock-in connexin26 male and female mice were infertile and exhibited hypotrophic gonads. In testes, tubuli seminiferi were developed and spermatogonia as well as some primary spermatocytes were present, but further differentiated stages of spermatogenesis were absent. Ovaries of female connexin43 knock-in connexin26 mice revealed only few follicles and the maturation of follicles was completely impaired. CONCLUSION: The impaired gametogenesis of homozygous males and females can explain their infertility

Direct Cell–Cell Interactions in the Endometrium and in Endometrial Pathophysiology

Cell contacts exhibit a considerable influence on tissue physiology and homeostasis by controlling paracellular and intercellular transport processes, as well as by affecting signaling pathways. Since they maintain cell polarity, they play an important role in cell plasticity. The knowledge about the junctional protein families and their interactions has increased considerably during recent years. In contrast to most other tissues, the endometrium undergoes extensive physiological changes and reveals an extraordinary plasticity due to its crucial role in the establishment and maintenance of pregnancy. These complex changes are accompanied by changes in direct cell–cell contacts to meet the various requirements in the respective developmental stage. Impairment of this sophisticated differentiation process may lead to failure of implantation and embryo development and may be involved in the pathogenesis of endometrial diseases. In this article, we focus on the knowledge about the distribution and regulation of the different junctional proteins in the endometrium during cycling and pregnancy, as well as in pathologic conditions such as endometriosis and cancer. Decoding these sophisticated interactions should improve our understanding of endometrial physiology as well as of the mechanisms involved in pathological conditions

The mentoring of women for medical career development Medical career development

Abstract Purpose -In Germany, scientific qualifications and an academic career in medical disciplines require mastering and balancing clinical, research and teaching activities. Systematic interdisciplinary human resource development is rare in German medical faculties. The purpose of this paper is to describe the MediMent programme, which is a model for systematic interdisciplinary support of early-and mid-phase career development for medical academics. It comprises mentoring, training and networking modules tailored for pre-and post-doctoral students at the Medical Faculty. It contributes to organisational development and reducing gender inequality by an affirmative action programme for women. The programme supports individual career-building, teaches networking skills for an interdisciplinary workplace and assists in conflict resolution. Design/methodology/approach -Mentors and mentees provided feedback via standardised forms. Additional open-ended questions were interpreted by content analysis. Statistics were prepared using SPSS. Findings -Evaluation of the first six-year programme run revealed several benefits, indicating the trio of mentoring, networking and the accompanying seminar series efficiently supports career development of young medical academics. Participating mentees felt they achieved career goals within the mentoring programme. Evaluations indicated a strong potential for future investment in the organisation through better training, improving institutional visibility and stimulating recruitment of excellent students. Originality/value -The success of the MediMent programme described in the paper recommends it for implementation at other institutions. Keywords Germany, Universities, Mentoring, Women, Career development, Medicine, Mentorship of early career faculty members, Mentorship of doctoral students, Organizational development, Mentoring and coaching in higher education, Career counselling, Human resources Paper type Case study The authors acknowledge Dr Kathy Astrahantseff for editing the text. 155 Medical career development Introduction Profile development, quality management and support of young medical academics are of crucial importance to assure competitiveness and sustainability of universities. In order to permanently guarantee competitive, cutting-edge research on an international level, medical faculties must face the challenge of developing talent resources and supporting young medical academics as essential providers of innovation. It is crucial to recruit high-quality employees at an early stage. Research projects are increasingly carried out by international and interdisciplinary teams supported by extramural funding. This requires that, in addition to training as medical specialists, young medical academics must gain more extensive research expertise and management skills than have been necessary in the past. They should be qualified to initiate and organise projects as well as building and leading research teams. Furthermore, they must be able to translate clinical questions into translational research projects, and present concepts and research for grant applications and dissemination of project results. Several questions remain that must be answered together with young medical academics to elucidate how universities can better prepare them for these tasks and how medical faculties can benefit from such a process: how is the decision for an academic career in the field of medicine made? What do young medical academics need to develop the clinical and research components of their careers? What is expected from young medical academics? How is it possible to combine clinical work with research and teaching? How can the educational training necessary for qualified teaching be implemented? How does one shape an individual research profile? How does one gain visibility in the scientific community? How does one develop a scientific network? The MediMent programme, consisting of mentoring, seminars, networking, was designed to answer these questions, and help improve representation of women in leading scientific positions on a medium-to-long-term basis. It is obvious, that the academic medical community has to stop describing the problem and begin to develop concrete solutions There are a number of studies demonstrating that insufficient career-oriented support for women provided by established academics is one of the key factors in the disproportionate loss of potential female researchers in the academic field (Allmendinger et a