BACKGROUND In mammalian ovaries, diverse paracrine factors have been identified to mediate or modulate LH-induced changes during ovulation. Due to the difficulty in obtaining non-stimulated granulosa cells during IVF, little is known about the LH-induced paracrine factors in the human ovary. Based on earlier studies using murine ovarian cells showing the paracrine roles of brain-derived neurotr...

We report on a binuclear human oocyte that underwent maturation in vitro from germinal vesicle stage to metaphase II. Following extrusion of two polar bodies, the oocyte was processed for cytogenetic analysis which revealed two separate haploid chromosome sets accompanied by the corresponding polar body chromatin. Tentatively established karyotypes were 23,X and 23,X,ace, respectively. This con...

www.expert-reviews.com ISSN 1747-4108 © 2009 Expert Reviews Ltd 10.1586/EOG.09.24 It has been almost 50 years since the feasibility of oocyte cryopreservation was successfully demonstrated in mice [1]. Since then, many cryopreservation protocols have been introduced and tested in a wide range of mammalian species. The era of oocyte cryopreservation began with the announcement of the possible su...

Meiosis is the characteristic feature of sexual reproduction; its molecular regulation has been preserved throughout eukaryotic evolution. The defining stage of meiosis is prophase I (Fig. 1), in which homologous chromosomes pair and remain tethered until the first meiotic division, when they must segregate equally into daughter cells that then enter meiosis II. The importance of this stage is ...

STUDY QUESTION Can amino acid profiling differentiate between human oocytes with differing competence to mature to metaphase II (MII) in vitro? SUMMARY ANSWER Oocytes which remained arrested at the germinal vesicle (GV) stage after 24 h of in vitro maturation (IVM) displayed differences in the depletion/appearance of amino acids compared with oocytes which progressed to MII and patient age, i...

Female reproductive capacity declines dramatically in the fourth decade of life as a result of an age-related decrease in oocyte quality and quantity. The primary causes of reproductive aging and the molecular factors responsible for decreased oocyte quality remain elusive. Here, we show that aging of the female germ line is accompanied by mitochondrial dysfunction associated with decreased oxi...

OBJECTIVE To determine the clinical potential of donor-oocyte cryopreservation and thaw techniques for recipient patients. DESIGN Institutional review board-approved prospective study of donor oocyte cryopreservation. SETTING A large, private infertility center. PATIENT(S) Four anonymous oocyte donors underwent ovarian hyperstimulation for the purpose of oocyte retrieval and cryopreservat...

OBJECTIVE During stimulated IVF cycles, up to 15% of oocytes are recovered as immature. The purpose of this study was to investigate the trend of oocyte maturity in repeated ovarian stimulation for IVF. METHODS One hundred forty-eight patients were selected who underwent two consecutive IVF cycles using same stimulation protocol during 2008 to 2010. Ovarian stimulation was performed with FSH ...

BACKGROUND Cryopreservation is now considered as an efficient way to store human oocytes to preserve fertility. However, little is known about the effects of this technology on oocyte gene expression. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of the two cryopreservation procedures, slow freezing and vitrification, on the gene expression profile of human metaphase II (MII) oocytes. METHO...

A method is described by which nuclei associated with some cytoplasm can be rapidly prepared from a suspension of cells. The method involves the use of lysolecithin and bovine serum albumin. Oocytes of Xenopus laevis were injected with about 200 nuclei perpared from human HeLa cells by this method. Nuclei were deposited in oocyte cytoplasm, in the oocyte nucleus, or in the dispersed contents of...