To study the mechanisms involved in the progression of meiotic maturation in the mouse, we used oocytes from two strains of mice, CBA/Kw and KE, which differ greatly in the rate at which they undergo meiotic maturation. CBA/Kw oocytes extrude the first polar body about 7 hours after breakdown of the germinal vesicle (GVBD), whilst the oocytes from KE mice take approximately 3-4 hours longer. In...

Joining immature gamete cryopreservation and germinal vesicle transplantation (GVT) technique could greatly improve assisted reproductive technologies in animal breeding and human medicine. The present work was aimed to assess the most suitable cryopreservation protocol between slow freezing and vitrification for immature denuded bovine oocytes, able to preserve both nuclear and cytoplasmic com...

objective: this study evaluated in vitro maturation (ivm) of oocytes in the germinal vesicle (gv) stage in stimulated intracytoplasmic sperm injection (icsi) cycles. materials and methods: a total of 26 women, aged 18 -37 years, who were candidates for icsi at the fatemeh zahra infertility and health reproductive research center in 2007 were recruited for this study. we used the standard long p...

The distribution of annulate lamellae, electron-dense masses, rough endoplasmic reticulum, and Golgi complexes in longitudinal sections of newt oocytes at several stages of progesterone-induced maturation was recorded with an electron microscope equipped with a drawing device. Annulate lamellae in full-grown oocytes occur in close contact with electron-dense masses and the nuclear envelope and ...

ING3 (inhibitor of growth family, member 3) is a subunit of the nucleosome acetyltransferase of histone 4 (NuA4) complex, which activates gene expression. ING3, which contains a plant homeodomain (PHD) motif that can bind to trimethylated lysine 4 on histone H3 (H3K4me3), is ubiquitously expressed in mammalian tissues and governs transcriptional regulation, cell cycle control, and apoptosis via...

Mammalian oocytes are surrounded by numerous layers of cumulus cells, and the loss of gap junctional communication in the outer layers of cumulus cells induces meiotic resumption in oocytes. In this study, we investigated the dynamic changes in the gap junctional protein connexin-43 in cumulus cells during the meiotic resumption of porcine oocytes. The amount of connexin-43 in all layers of cum...

Background Salvia officinalisL. has been used since ancient times but there are little data about effects of this herb on normal reproductive cells. Objective To investigate the toxicity effects of Salvia officinalis L. on granulosa cells (GCs) and maturation of oocytes. Materials and Methods GCs and oocytes were extracted from superovulated ovaries of immature mice. The cells were treated ...

In freshly isolated fully grown pig oocytes at the germinal vesicle (GV) stage, the cytoplasmic microtubules are arranged in a meshwork. This microtubule arrangement is also maintained during the initial phases of meiotic maturation in vitro. A perinuclear array of microtubules is formed immediately before germinal vesicle breakdown (GVBD). Short-term treatment of oocytes with taxol when oocyte...

in traditional medicine, mentha spicata is widely used for many diseases, especially in  digestive system. it has anti-androgenic effects thus can be used by women experiencing polycystic ovary syndrome (pcos). also, it has shown to possess antioxidant properties. although beneficial, studies have shown its detrimental effect on some tissues. the present study was carried out to determine the e...

background: the objective of this study was to investigate the effect of vitrification and in vitro maturation on the mitochondrial distribution and atp content of oocytes. methods: the oocytes at germinal vesicle (gv) and metaphase ii (mii) stages were recovered from 6-8 week old nmri strain female mice. the oocytes were divided into vitrified and non-vitrified groups. vitrification was done b...