Participants: associate - professor Margarita Mollova, professor Stanimir Kyurkchiev  

The name of the visited institution

• Private Hospital for Gynecology, Magdeburg, Germany- Prof. Hans Donat
• Clinic for Reproductive Medicine, Medical Faculty, Otto von Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany, Prof. J. Kleinstein, MD

Duration - 22.09 – 29.09.2010

The purpose of the visit - Exchange of know-how on the following topics:

• Reproductive and tumor immunology in Private Hospital for Gynaecology, Magdeburg
• Methods for assisted reproduction applied in Clinic for Reproductive Medicine, Medical Faculty, Otto von Guericke University,

Results achieved:

• In the clinic of Professor Hans Donat we got acquainted with the activities of the personnel and the research done in the field of reproductive and tumor immunology and specifically the analysis of immunologically competent cells by immune-peroxidase technique and flow cytometry. We had very detailed discussions about the possibilities to develop joint research projects on the detection of cancer stem from breast cancer tissue, to isolate such cells and further characterization of these cells using the methods of real time PCR, confocal microscopy, proteomics and DNA microarrays. Practical schemes of the experiments to be carried out were discussed and specified.
• During our visit in the Clinic for Reproductive Medicine, Medical Faculty, Oto von Guerike University headed by prof. J. Kleistein, a demonstration of the methods and techniques used for manipulation of gametes and embryos applied in the clinic for assisted reproduction. 
• Associated-professor Dr. M. Mollova presented a lecture entitled “Spermatozoa-specific antigen with fusogenic activity and its role in immunologically related infertility”. Professor S. Kyurkchiev presented the data about the “Identification, isolation and characterization of adult stem (multipotent stromal cells) cells in human endometrium and early deciduas”.

A number of questions were raised and discussed after the presentations. It was suggested that the Clinic of Reproductive Medicine (Magdeburg) would start collecting sera from infertile patients. The collected human sera will be sent to the laboratory of Dr. Mollova and will be tested for the presence of autoantibodies specific to Ag60. The findings will be correlated to the effect of the ART treatment of infertile patients in Magdeburg, Germany and these data are supposed to outline the significance of Ag60 as a predictive criterion in infertile patients. Concerning studies on endometriotic cells the possibility was discussed to perform further joint experiments using samples from endometriotic lesions to isolate and characterize multipotent stromal cells and to compare their basic characteristics to those of multipotent stromal cells from normal endometrium or deciduas.

During the discussion with our partners in Magdeburg specific option were discussed in relation to future collaboration and development of new research projects focused on the discussed topics. Some of these topics will put discussions during the second annual meeting of the partner organizations in the ReProForce project.