Fatty acid oxidation is an important energy source for the oocyte; however, little is known about how this metabolic pathway is regulated in cumulus-oocyte complexes. Analysis of genes involved in fatty acid oxidation showed that many are regulated by the luteinizing hormone surge during in vivo maturation, including acyl-CoA synthetases, carnitine transporters, acyl-CoA dehydrogenases and acet...

The mammalian oocyte develops within a complex of somatic cells known as a follicle, within which signals from the somatic cells regulate the oocyte, and signals from the oocyte regulate the somatic cells. Because isolation of the oocyte from the follicle disrupts these communication pathways, oocyte physiology is best studied within an intact follicle. Here we describe methods for quantitative...

The oocyte is a highly differentiated cell. It makes organelles specialized to its unique functions and progresses through a series of developmental stages to acquire a fertilization competent phenotype. This review will integrate the biology of the oocyte with what is known about oocyte-specific gene regulation and transcription factors involved in oocyte development. We propose that oogenesis...

BACKGROUND The complexity of fertilization failure during assisted reproductive technologies (ART) is often under-appreciated, as this failure can occur at any number of essential mechanistic and cellular events. Importantly, successful fertilization is heavily dependent upon inherent qualities of the oocytes, and thus reliant upon fidelity of oocyte maturation. METHODS Pubmed and medline wer...

In the recent years, WiFi standard has been used to develop different kind of wireless networks due to its flexibility and the availability of cheap off the shelf hardware. Even if the standard itself lacks mobility support, it has been used in networks with mobile nodes. When mobility is involved, a fast handoff is of paramount importance, especially with multimedia applications. The current I...

background: abnormal oocyte morphology has been associated with the hormonal environment to which the gametes are exposed. objective: in this study, we evaluated the oocytes morphology, fertilization rate, embryos quality, and implantation rate resulted of retrieved oocytes in different times after human chorionic gonadotrophin (hcg) administration. materials and methods: a total of 985 metapha...

A great deal of evolutionary conservation has been found in the control of oocyte development, from invertebrates to women. However, little is known of mechanisms that control oocyte loss over time. Oocyte loss is often assumed to be a result of oocyte-intrinsic deficiencies or damage. In fruit flies, starvation results in halted oocyte production by germline stem cells and induces oocyte loss ...

Folliculogenesis is a progressive and highly regulated process, which is essential to provide ova for later reproductive life, requires the bidirectional communication between the oocyte and granulosa cells. This physical connection-mediated communication conveys not only the signals from the oocyte to granulosa cells that regulate their proliferation but also metabolites from the granulosa cel...

The anterior-posterior axis of Drosophila is established before fertilisation when the oocyte becomes polarised to direct the localisation of bicoid and oskar mRNAs to opposite poles of the egg. Here we review recent results that reveal that the oocyte acquires polarity much earlier than previously thought, at the time when it acquires its fate. The oocyte arises from a 16-cell germline cyst, a...