Earticle

The total fertility rate in South Korea is at its lowest in the world, and there is a sense of crisis about this. One of factors influencing the total fertility rate of women is their postpartum depression, which is correlated with their pregnancy experience. In this study, we aimed to investigate correlation between positive or negative pregnancy experience, maternal attachment, and postpartum depression among who have given birth, The design of this study is descriptive correlational research, and the participants included 152 women undergoing postpartum care in postpartum care centers located in Seoul and Gimhae city. The average age of the participants in this study was 33.72 years, and their mean scores for pregnancy experience indicated that positive scores were higher than negative scores. Also, the research results revealed that there is a significant correlation between women`s positive or negative pregnancy experience and postpartum depression. Based on the findings of this study, it is necessary to provide proactive intervention and support from the time of pregnancy to enhance the well-being of postpartum women.

This study used adult wistar-based rats to observe the sexual cycle as a morphological characteristic of vaginal epithelial cells by vaginal smearing, and investigated the fetal number through mating with male rats of the same strain. The target animal was a 12 to 13-week-old Wistar-based mature unlighted rat (weight 220 g to 240 g), room temperature 23 ± 2℃, 14 hours artificial lighting (05:00 to 19:00 hours), 10 hours Adapted individuals were used for rearing for at least 2 weeks under the conditions of the darkroom (19:00 to 05:00). The feed was managed for free feeding of pellet feed for animals and water. The vaginal smearing method was used for the experiments by observing the sexual cycle every morning and confirming that the normal sexual cycle of 4 or 5 days was repeated at least 2 cycles or more. As a result, the proestrus was found to have few red blood cells, the cells and nuclei were rather large and round, and many nucleated cells were identified. In the case of the estrus, the cells were large and the nuclei were not stained, and most of the keratinocytes were found. In addition, in the metestrus and diestrus, there were many white blood cells, and it was confirmed that nucleated epithelial cells and keratinocytes were significantly reduced. The pregnancy period was 21 ± 1.8 days, and the number of live births per delivery was 11.9 on average. The number of fetuses on the 8th and 10th days of pregnancy were 15.2 ± 0.4 and 15.4 ± 0.3, respectively. On the contrary, the number of fetuses on the 12th day of pregnancy was 12.9 ± 0.6, which was significantly (p < 0.05) decreased compared to the 10th day of pregnancy, and the number of fetuses was similar until delivery. As a result of investigating the change of body weight according to the birth weight and growth stage after delivery, the birth weight of female and male was 9.2 ± 2.0 g and 9.8 ± 2.5 g, respectively. After that, until the 16th day, the female and the male showed similarly moderate weight gain, and then showed a rapid weight gain until the 21st day of lactation. With reference to the results of this study, it is expected to be used as basic data for determining the mating time of rodents and controlling pregnancy and fetal number.

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are nanovesicles that carry bioactive cargoes of proteins, lipids, mRNAs, and miRNAs between living cells. Their role in cellular communication has gained the attention of several research reports globally in the last decade. EVs are critically involved in sperm functions, oocyte functions, fertilization, embryonic development, and pregnancy. The review summarizes the state-of-theart of EVs research in the diagnostic and therapeutic (theranostic) potentials of the EVs during the pregnancy that might provide a solution for gestational disturbances such as implantation failure, maternal health problems, gestational diabetes, and preeclampsia. EVs can be found in all biological fluids of the fetus and the mother and would provide a non-invasive and excellent tool for diagnostic purposes. Moreover, we provide the current efforts in manufacturing and designing targeted therapeutics using synthetic and semi-synthetic nanovesicles mimicking the natural EVs for efficient drug delivery during pregnancy.