Background: M-CSF is a cytokine mediating the growth, proliferation and differentiation of various cell types including macrophages, trophoblast cells, and osteoclasts. It plays an important role in immunity reproduction, follicle development and ovulation. In the present study, we describe the important role of the changes in serum M-CSF levels during the menstrual cycle, in the process of fol...

Background: Vitamin D, a steroid hormone, has critical roles in human health. The available data thus identify vitamin D as an important substance in processes involved in reproductive success and thereby suggest pathophysiological mechanisms for reproductive compromise in the setting of vitamin D deficiency. Realizing the prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency in our country, we hypothesized th...

Hydrolysis of the phospholipid phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate is thought to be intimately involved in agonist-induced changes in intracellular Ca2+ levels. Recently we have shown that human preovulatory follicular fluid, which induces exocytosis in human sperm, can stimulate a rapid, transient increase in sperm cytosolic [Ca2+] [Thomas & Meizel (1988) Gamete Res. 20, 397-411]. We report ...

Changes in sexual behavior and progesterone, oestrone, oestradiol, testosterone and androstenedione concentrations have been studied in the follicular fluid of 25 pseudopregnant rabbits on Days 6, 9, 12, 15 and 18. The sexual behavior score seemed to rise at the end of pseudopregnancy and follicular steroid levels were higher on Days 6 and 18 of pseudopregnancy than on Days 9, 12 or 15. The gen...

BACKGROUND The relationship between metabolism and reproduction has been always considered as an important topic in female endocrinology. It seems that leptin is one of the involved factors in infertility. Leptin, in addition to regulating body weight plays an important role in regulation of endocrine, reproductive and immune systems. The aim of this stduy is to compare serum and follicular flu...

Pluripotent human amniotic fluid cells (HuAFCs) can differentiate into various types of somatic cell in vitro. However, their differentiation into oocyte-like cells has never been described to the best of our knowledge. In the present study, differentiation of E-cadherin+ and E-cadherin- HuAFC sub-populations into oocyte-like cells was induced via culture in medium containing bovine follicular ...

BACKGROUND Corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) and its receptors have been identified in female reproductive tissues. CRH regulates follicular maturation, ovulation, luteolysis and steroidgenesis. A CRH-related peptide stresscopin (SCP), or urocortin III (Ucn3), has recently been identified, but its functions in the ovary remain to be elucidated. In the present study, we investigated the effe...

Ovulation has long been associated with an increased risk in ovarian cancer, yet the underlying molecular mechanisms remain obscure. Two aspects of ovulation have been linked to ovarian cancer pathogenesis. The first is the impact of repetitive tissue injury and repair that occurs with each ovulatory event. The second is the release of follicular fluid that accompanies the follicular rupture an...

Leukaemia inhibitory factor expression in human follicular fluid Dear Sir, We were interested to read the paper by Arici et al. (1997) who found leukaemia inhibitory factor (LIF) expression in human follicular fluid (hFF). We would like to confirm this fact and make some short comments. Since we have postulated that LIF could play a role in the inflammatory-like processes involved in the periov...

Two proteoglycans differing in size and composition were isolated from human follicular fluid. The larger one of high density had a molecular mass of 3.0x10(6) Da, as determined by laser light-scattering, and was substituted with 15-20 chondroitin sulphate (CS) chains (Mr 60000-65000). Half of the CS disaccharides were 6-sulphated, whereas the remaining ones were non-sulphated. Digestion of the...