BACKGROUND In vitro maturation (IVM) is a promising treatment option for certain infertile women. Nowadays, with the aid of PolScope, it has become possible to evaluate zona pellucida (ZP) characteristics as a parameter of oocyte quality. Moreover, quality of oocytes can be influenced by many factors, such as patient's age. The PolScope system is a non-invasive technique to assess birefringent ...

OBJECTIVE To detect plasminogen and plasminogen activators (PA) in oviduct and oocytes and to clarify the role of the plasminogen/plasmin system on mammalian fertilization. DESIGN Experimental prospective study. SETTING Mammalian reproduction research laboratory. ANIMAL(S) Oviducts and ovaries from porcine and bovine females were collected at slaughterhouse. A total of 52 oviducts and 2,2...

Background: Successful in vitro maturation (IVM) of oocytes is an important step for production of livestock through assisted reproductive techniques including somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). Obtaining an optimal duration for maturation of oocyte is essential, since over exposure to maturation medium results in oocyte aging, while under exposure leads to production of immature incompetent...

BACKGROUND Non-invasive selection of developmentally competent human oocytes may increase the overall efficiency of human assisted reproduction and is regarded as crucial in countries where legal, social or religious factors restrict the production of supernumerary embryos. The purpose of this study was to summarize the predictive value for IVF success of morphological features of the oocyte th...

Background: Bisphenol A (BPA), an estrogenic environmental contaminant is also known for oxidative stressinducing effect. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of vitamin C as an antioxidant on the ovary tissue in adult rats treated with BPA. Materials and Methods: Adult female rats (200 ±20 g) were divided into 4 groups (n=6):control, bisphenol A (60μg/Kg/day) , vitamin C (150 mg...

The morphological assessment of oocytes is important for embryologists to identify and select MII oocytes in IVF/ICSI cycles. Dysmorphism of oocytes decreases viability and the developmental potential of oocytes as well as the clinical pregnancy rate. Several reports have suggested that oocytes with a dark zona pellucida (DZP) correlate with the outcome of IVF treatment. However, the effect of ...

BACKGROUND Mammalian sperm-oocyte interaction at fertilization involves several combined interactions between integrins on the oocyte and integrin ligands (disintegrins) on the sperm. Recent research has indicated the ability of peptides containing the RGD sequence that characterized several sperm disintegrins, to induce intracellular Ca2+ transients and to initiate parthenogenetic development ...

The current limitations for obtaining ovaries from slaughterhouses and the low efficiency of in vivo follicular aspiration necessitate a complete understanding of the variables that affect oocyte developmental competence in the equine. For this reason, we assessed the effect on equine oocyte meiotic competence and the subsequent in vitro cloned embryo development of 1) the time interval between...

BACKGROUND Sperm-oocyte fusion is a critical step in fertilization, which requires a series of proteins from both spermatozoa and oocyte to mediate membrane adhesion and subsequent fusion. A rat spermatozoa membrane protein is endoplasmic reticulum protein 29 (ERp29), which significantly increases on the sperm surface as well as in the cytoplasm of epididymal epithelia from caput to cauda as th...

The selectin family of cell adhesion molecules mediates initial leukocyte adhesion to vascular endothelial cells at sites of inflammation. O-glycan structural similarities between oligosaccharides from human leukocyte P-selectin glycoprotein ligand-1 (PSGL-1) and from zona pellucida glycoproteins of porcine oocytes indicate the possible existence of a P-selectin ligand in the zona pellucida. He...