Heat shock may affect different aspects of oocyte maturation and its subsequent development to the blastocyst stage. A series of in vitro experiments was performed to determine whether physiologically heat shock (41°C) disrupts the progression of the ovine oocytes through meiosis, activation and blastocyst formation. Cumulus-oocyte complexes (COCs) were aspirated from 2-6-mm follicles and cultu...

Methods to predict numbers of healthy oocytes in the ovaries of young adults could have important diagnostic relevance in family planning and animal agriculture. We have observed that peak antral follicle count (AFC) determined by serial ovarian ultrasonography during follicular waves is very highly reproducible within individual young adult cattle, despite 7-fold variation among animals. Herei...

BACKGROUND Cyclins regulate the cell cycle in association with cyclin dependent kinases (CDKs). CDKs are under inhibitory control of cyclin dependent kinase inhibitors (CDKIs). METHOD In this study we tested the expression of CDKIs p15, p16, p21 and p27 by immunohistochemistry to determine the role of CDKIs in the initiation of primordial follicle growth. Ovaries were collected from 60-day-ol...

BACKGROUND The following study was carried out to determine the ultrastructural features of the oocyte of the ovulatory-sized follicles in relation to concentrations of steroids and IGF-I in the Follicular Fluid (FF) and serum in the dromedary camel. METHODS CAMEL FOLLICLES WITH A CLEAR AND HEALTHY APPEARANCE WERE CATEGORIZED INTO THREE CLASSES: follicles 10 to 13.9, 14-17.9 and 18-30 mm diam...

this study was undertaken to compare the efficiency of fresh and frozen-thawed buck semen on in vitro fertilization (ivf) of goat oocytes. cumulus oocytes complexes (cocs) were collected by aspiration of 2-6 mm diameter follicles, which were obtained from slaughterhouse. upon grading, only normal quality cocs were maturated in tcm-199 for 48 hours. the percentage of cocs reached to the m-ii sta...

BACKGROUND Our aim was to determine the effect of single endometriomas ≤3 cm in diameter per se on ovarian reserve in intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) cycles. METHODS We enrolled 19 consecutive infertile patients (29 cycles) who had unilateral single endometriomas ≤3 cm in diameter and who underwent ICSI. RESULTS The mean age of the patients was 33.3 ± 4.9 years. The mean diameter of...

Leptopanchax opalescens is a critically endangered small annual fish. Reproductive traits of this species were studied to improve our understanding the strategies that facilitate occupation temporary wetlands. We compiled egg diameter and maximum total length data from 136 neotropical killifishes (Rivulidae) establish comparisons between with different life histories. tested hypothesis have sma...

Some culture systems have been shown to support oocyte growth in mice, although there has been little success in applying these systems to other species. In the present study, we compared three culture conditions for growing bovine oocytes and examined the effect of hypoxanthine on oocyte growth. In the first experiment, early antral follicles, 0.4-0.7 mm in diameter were collected, and oocyte-...