Docente
Ana Sofia Pires Amaral

Resume

Ana Amaral has been working in animal reproduction since 2012, when she started a scientific scholarship at CIISA - FMV/UL under the supervision of Professor Graça Ferreira Dias. After, in 2015, Ana started her PhD studies conducted at CIISA and at PAS, Olsztyn, Poland, under the supervision of Professor Graça Ferreira Dias and Professor Dariusz Skarzysnski. The PhD investigation and thesis were focused on the effect of proteases (such as elastase, cathepsin G and myeloperoxidase) present in neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) and their pro-fibrotic effect in equine endometrium. Moreover, she also investigated the effect of some protease inhibitors found in NETs to evaluate if their inhibition would reduce their pro-fibrotic action. Thus, this would thereby open new opportunities for future development of specific drugs to be used as prophylaxis or therapy of endometrosis in the mare. Ana successfully defended her PhD thesis in January 2021 and was awarded two prizes for the work presented as two oral communications during the PhD - at the Annual Meeting of the Portuguese Association of Veterinary Doctors in 2018 and in 2019. Further, Ana also was the recipient of a CIISA-FMV/UL project, as a principal investigator. This allowed her to finish her PhD studies and resulted in the publication of two articles as first author. In 2019-2020, Ana accepted a position as Invited Assistant Professor at Escola Superior Agrária de Elvas (Elvas, Portugal) where she delivered lectures of Anatomy, Physiology and Emergency and hospital care in Veterinary Nursing degree. Since October 2020, Ana joined the team of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias (Lisbon, Portugal) where she coordinates and is a lecturer of Equine Reproduction, Gynecology and Obstetrics, Physiology and Equine Neonatology, which are curricular units of the Integrated Master´s of Veterinary Medicine degree. Ana Amaral is also a member of Ethics and Animal Welfare Commission at this institution. Ana has published 18 manuscripts in international journals with peer review (10 of them in quartile 1 journals), (6 of them as first author), 1 book chapter with peer review, 14 international oral communications (3 of them as a first author), 15 national oral communications (4 of them as a first author), 12 international poster presentations (3 of them as a first author), and 6 national poster presentations (4 of them as a first author). According to Scopus her scientific metric data are 17 documents, 117 citations and a h-index of 6. Ana has also attend to many external courses related to equine reproduction and in-house seminars mainly to improve teaching skills. As an academic advisor, she supervised two students that already finished their studies and have two more students on ongoing internships.

Graus

• Doutoramento
  Ciências Veterinárias
• Mestrado integrado
  Medicina Veterinária
• Pós-Graduação
  Veterinary Acupuncture postgraduate

Publicações

Artigo em revista

• 2021-10-19, The Inhibitory Effect of Noscapine on the In Vitro Cathepsin G-Induced Collagen Expression in Equine Endometrium, Life
• 2021-09-06, Enzymes Present in Neutrophil Extracellular Traps May Stimulate the Fibrogenic PGF2a Pathway in the Mare Endometrium, Animals
• 2021-05-19, Noscapine Acts as a Protease Inhibitor of In Vitro Elastase-Induced Collagen Deposition in Equine Endometrium, International Journal of Molecular Sciences
• 2021-04-12, Microvascularization and Expression of Fibroblast Growth Factor and Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor and Their Receptors in the Mare Oviduct, Animals
• 2021-01-16, Myeloperoxidase Inhibition Decreases the Expression of Collagen and Metallopeptidase in Mare Endometria under In Vitro Conditions, Animals
• 2020-10-30, The Inhibition of Cathepsin G on Endometrial Explants With Endometrosis in the Mare, Frontiers in Veterinary Science
• 2020-05-16, The In Vitro Inhibitory Effect of Sivelestat on Elastase Induced Collagen and Metallopeptidase Expression in Equine Endometrium, Animals
• 2019-09, Collagens and DNA methyltransferases in mare endometrosis, Reproduction in Domestic Animals
• 2019-04, Impairment of the antifibrotic prostaglandin E2 pathway may influence neutrophil extracellular traps–induced fibrosis in the mare endometrium, Domestic Animal Endocrinology
• 2018-09, Elastase inhibition affects collagen transcription and prostaglandin secretion in mare endometrium during the estrous cycle, Reproduction in Domestic Animals
• 2018-06, Constituents of neutrophil extracellular traps induce in vitro collagen formation in mare endometrium, Theriogenology
• 2018, Is mare endometrosis linked to oviduct fibrosis?, Pferdeheilkunde Equine Medicine
• 2017-10, Ovarian steroids, oxytocin, and tumor necrosis factor modulate equine oviduct function, Domestic Animal Endocrinology
• 2016, Dual effect of hormones on mare reproductive physiology and dysfunction, Pferdeheilkunde Equine Medicine
• 2014-10, Physiopathologic Mechanisms Involved in Mare Endometrosis, Reproduction in Domestic Animals
• 2014-01, Novel luteolytic mechanisms in equine corpora lutea: the role of Nodal signaling pathway and its interaction with Tumor necrosis factor alpha, Interferon gamma and Fas ligand, Journal of Equine Veterinary Science
• 2014, Opposing Roles of Leptin and Ghrelin in the Equine Corpus Luteum Regulation: AnIn VitroStudy, Mediators of Inflammation
• 2012-05-30, Short communication. Isolation of Aeromonas hydrophila in piglets, Spanish Journal of Agricultural Research

Tese / Dissertação

• 2021, Doutoramento, New insights on the inhibition of neutrophil extracellular traps enzymes in equine endometrium
• 2010, Mestrado, Relatório de estágio de clínica e cirurgia de animais de companhia: relatório de estágio de dominio fundamental

Capítulo de livro

• 2020, What Goes Wrong from a Mare Healthy Endometrium to Endometrosis?, Advances in Animal Health, Medicine and Production, Springer International Publishing

Artigo em conferência

• 2018-01-20, Oviduct fibrosis in mares with endometrosis: is it a myth or a fact? , 10th International Conference on Equine Reproductive Medicine (ICERM)
• 2016-01-16, Hormones role on mare reproductive physiology and dysfunction. , 9th International Conference on Equine Reproductive Medicine (ICERM)

Poster em conferência

• 2019-11, Putative blood biomarkers of fibrosis in equine endometrium, 15º Congreso Internacional de la Asociación Española de Reproducción Animal
• 2019-11, Inhibitory effect of noscapine on cathepsin-induced collagen production and prostaglandin secretion in mare endometrium, 15º Congreso Internacional de la Asociación Española de Reproducción Animal
• 2019-09, Noscapine inhibits collagen deposition induced by neutrophil extracellular traps components in equine endometrium, 23rd Annual meeting ESDAR
• 2019-04, A transcrição de colagénio no oviduto equino e possíveis vias envolvidas, 9º Encontro de Formação da Ordem dos Médicos Veterinários
• 2018-11, Sivelestat and noscapine modulate collagen transcription and prostaglandin secretion in mare endometrium, Exploring the boundaries of animal, veterinary and biomedical sciences
• 2018-11, Evaluation of elastase and cathepsin G inhibition on collagen transcription and prostaglandin secretion in mare endometrium, III PhD Meeting in Environment and Agriculture
• 2018-09, Nodal protein expression in mare’s endometrium, 22nd Annual ESDAR Conference 2018
• 2018-06, Prostaglandin environment may favor collagen deposition in mare endometrium when challenged by neutrophil extracellular traps proteases, 2nd International Conference on Tissue Repair, Regeneration, and Fibrosis
• 2018-06, Noscapine inhibits elastase induced collagen transcription and prostaglandin secretion in mare endometrium, 2nd International Conference on Tissue Repair, Regeneration, and Fibrosis
• 2017-11, Efeito da inibição in vitro da catepsina na transcrição do colagénio 1 e 3 e na função secretora do endométrio equino, V Jornadas do Grupo de Trabalho de Investigação em Equídeos.
• 2016-10, Inhibition of NETs components on collagen 1 and 3 transcription on in mare endometrium, 20th Annual meeting ESDAR – 13th Congress AERA
• 2016-09, Neutrophil extracellular traps components and mare endometrium fibrosis: are they related?, 1rst International Conference on Tissue Repair, Regeneration and Fibrosis
• 2014-09, Transcription of VEGF, FGF1 and 2 and their receptors in different portions of the equine oviduct along the estrous cycle, 18th Conference of European society for Domestic Animal Reproduction
• 2014-09, Nodal and its receptors ALK-4 and ALK-7 in healthy and fibrotic endometrium of cyclic mare., 18th Conference of European society for Domestic Animal Reproduction
• 2014-07, About the inguinal gland during gestation and after parturition: a glance towards prolactin, estradiol and progesterone receptors, Congress of the European Association of Veterinary Anatomists
• 2014-04, Fatores de virulência em Aeromonas hydrophila causadora de septicémia em leitões, VI Congresso da SPCV
• 2013-09, Nodal signaling pathway supports luteolysis via Tumor necrosis factor in equine corpus luteum., 17th Conference of European Society for Domestic Animal Reproduction
• 2013-09, Estrous cycle phases on mare endometrium secretory function and fibrosis markers (TIMP 1 and TGFß1) after neutrophil extracellular traps and cytokines action, 17th Conference of European society for Domestic Animal Reproduction