Background: Sex steriods play important roles in the growth and differentiation of reproduction tissues and in maintatinance of pregnancy. 17-β oestradiol (E2) is the most important one of them that has a positive effect an the granulosa cells proliferation and ovarian follicle maturation. Then the aim of this study was determine of the effectes of rFSH+ E2 combination as an ovarian stimulator ...

Melatonin (N-acetyl-5-methoxytryptamine) is secreted during the dark hours at night by pineal gland, and it regulates a variety of important central and peripheral actions related to circadian rhythms and reproduction. It has been believed that melatonin regulates ovarian function by the regulation of gonadotropin release in the hypothalamus-pituitary gland axis via its specific receptors. In a...

We followed the early embryogenesis of Aphelenchoides besseyi from fertilization to the 4-cell stage under Nomarski optics and examined the chromosome number and structure by DAPI staining. After an oocyte is fertilized by a sperm, the eggshell forms and the male and female pronuclei are reconstructed. The male pronucleus moves toward the female pronucleus, which is located at the center of the...

As a tumor suppressor homologue during mitosis, Chk2 is involved in replication checkpoints, DNA repair, and cell cycle arrest, although its functions during mouse oocyte meiosis and early embryo development remain uncertain. We investigated the functions of Chk2 during mouse oocyte maturation and early embryo development. Chk2 exhibited a dynamic localization pattern; Chk2 expression was restr...

Pluripotent stem cells are possibly the best candidates for regenerative medicine, and somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) is one of the viable options to make patient-specific embryonic stem cells. Till date efficacy of SCNT embryos is very low and requires further improvement like ideal oocyte activation and in vitro culture system. The aim of the present study was to evaluate ideal oocyte a...

Studies of receptor-mediated lipoprotein metabolic pathways in avian species have revealed that physiological intricacies of specific cell types are highly analogous to those in mammals. A prime example for the power of comparative studies across different animal kingdoms, elucidated in the chicken, is that the expression of different lipoprotein receptors in somatic cells and oocytes are the k...

PURPOSE To investigate the direct relationship between the follicular fluid (FF) level of soluble human leukocyte antigen G (HLA-G) and fertilizability of the corresponding oocyte as well as the morphological quality of the corresponding embryo. MATERIALS AND METHODS Sixty-three patients were stimulated with recombinant FSH combined with gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) agonist long (n=5...

There is a need for more accurate embryo selection in human assisted reproduction, if the goal of reducing the number of embryos used in embryo transfer is to be realized. Furthermore, any selection strategy should be non-invasive if the embryos are to be used in embryo transfer. Currently, the strategy is selection by one to three parameters in the cleaving- and blastocyst-stage embryo, someti...

Cryopreservation of embryos and gametes has become an indispensible service for infertility treatment. Vitrification is now a prevalent technique for cryopreservation in assisted reproductive technology (ART) replacing, in many cases, conventional slow cooling methodology. Fertility preservation in female patients has become a very topical issue. Various malignant and nonmalignant diseases have...

The oocyte-to-embryo transition involves extensive changes in mRNA translation, regulated in Drosophila by the PNG kinase complex whose activity we show here to be under precise developmental control. Despite presence of the catalytic PNG subunit and the PLU and GNU activating subunits in the mature oocyte, GNU is phosphorylated at Cyclin B/CDK1sites and unable to bind PNG and PLU. In vitro pho...