Vol 67, No 1 (2025)

The development of personalized approaches in the treatment and diagnosis of various diseases, which consider individual characteristics of the patient’s organism, is an actively developing area of modern medicine. However, the transition to personalized medicine is impossible without the generation of relevant and patient-specific disease models. One of the trends in modern cell biology is the use of three-dimensional (3D) cell cultures similar in architecture to the tissues of the human body. Models based on such cultures are the most physiologically adequate and especially valuable when it is necessary to reproduce functional features of the patient’s tissue. Models of endometrium, the inner lining of the uterus, which provides the onset and development of pregnancy, are just like that. Unfortunately, effective treatment regimens have not yet been developed for many endometrial diseases, since the pathogenesis of endometrial dysfunctions is often insufficiently studied. In addition, the correction of such diseases often requires a personalized approach. This paper reviews the existing 3D in vitro models of the human endometrium, as well as the prospects for their application for the development of personalized treatment methods in the field of gynecology and reproductology.

Activation of autophagy is considered one of the promising strategies for the treatment and prevention of various non-infectious liver diseases. In this work, we assessed the changes in redox status and autophagy activation in liver tissues in vivo under the action of lithium chloride. It was shown that lithium chloride leads to the accumulation of autophagosomes in liver cells under normal conditions. This process is accompanied by a slight increase in the activity of several antioxidant enzymes. Toxic effects on the liver and the development of oxidative stress with 3-day use of LiCl were not detected. Significant rearrangements in the ultrastructure of the endoplasmic reticulum were observed, which can play a signaling role and participate in the initiation of autophagy. Thus, oral application of lithium chloride can be used as an effective modulator of the autophagy process in liver tissues.

The article is devoted to the cytogenetic study of one of the model species of amphibians — the grass frog Rana temporaria. The aim of the study was to develop a standard karyotype of R. temporaria, to identify chromosomal markers and to clarify the genome structure. We analysed the karyotype structure, the heterochromatin distribution and the specific localisation of some repetitive sequences on the chromosomes using different chromosome staining methods, including routine Giemsa staining, C-banding, staining with the fluorescent dyes DAPI, CMA3 and SYBR Green and fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH) with probes to the 5S rDNA and the S1A tandem repeat. The karyotype of R. temporaria consists of 26 chromosomes, (NF = 52) divided into 2 groups: 5 pairs of large chromosomes and 8 pairs of small chromosomes. C-banding revealed heterochromatin blocks in the centromeric regions of most chromosomes, and additional interstitial C-bands were detected on some chromosomes. SYBR Green staining showed intense fluorescence in the centromeric regions of some chromosomes. FISH with a probe to 5S rDNA confirmed the location of this gene on the short arm of chromosome pair 7. FISH mapping of the S1A tandem repeat showed the location of signals on both arms of chromosome 1, the short arms of chromosomes 2—5 and the long arms of chromosomes 7 and 9. Difficulties in detecting G- and Q-bands on amphibian chromosomes are discussed. The data obtained are compared with the results of previous studies and modifications to existing cytogenetic methods are suggested. Both DAPI and CMA3 staining showed a generally uniform fluorescence on all chromosomes, with the exception of a single DAPI-negative site corresponding to the NOR on chromosome 10. SYBR Green could be a useful method for the analysis of amphibian chromosomes, given the difficulties in detecting bands using traditional methods and fluorescent dyes.