in human several kinds of electrocardiographic findings have been reported in association with pneumothorax such as decreased and/or alternating qrs amplitude (electrical alternans). however, electrocardiographic changes concurrent with pneumothorax have rarely been discussed in veterinary literature. a 3-year-old male crossbreed dog was presented with a history of car accident. thoracic au...

BACKGROUND Microorganisms capable of surviving within macrophages are rare, but represent very successful pathogens. One of them is Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) whose resistance to early mechanisms of macrophage killing and failure of its phagosomes to fuse with lysosomes causes tuberculosis (TB) disease in humans. Thus, defining the mechanisms of phagosome maturation arrest and identifying...

OBJECTIVE To determine the morphological changes induced by mobile phone radiation in the testis of Wistar albino rats. STUDY DESIGN Cohort study. PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY Department of Physiology, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from April 2007 to June 2008. METHODOLOGY Forty male Wistar albino rats were divided in three groups. First group of eight se...

The oocytes of most sexually reproducing animals arrest in meiotic prophase I. Oocyte growth, which occurs during this period of arrest, enables oocytes to acquire the cytoplasmic components needed to produce healthy progeny and to gain competence to complete meiosis. In the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, the major sperm protein hormone promotes meiotic resumption (also called meiotic maturat...

Extensive survey of meiotic metaphase II arrest during oocyte maturation in vertebrates revealed that the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway regulated by the c-mos proto-oncogene product, Mos, has an essential role in cytostatic activity, termed cytostatic factor (CSF). In contrast, little is known in invertebrates in which meiotic arrest occurs in most cases at metaphase I (MI arr...

Previously, we found that the growth arrest-specific gene 6 (Gas6) is more highly expressed in germinal vesicle (GV) oocytes than in metaphase II (MII) oocytes using annealing control primer (ACP)-PCR technology. The current study was undertaken to investigate the role of Gas6 in oocyte maturation and fertilization using RNA interference (RNAi). Interestingly, despite the specific and marked de...

The objective was to examine potential roles of glucose and pyruvate in nuclear and cytoplasmic maturation of porcine oocytes. Oocyte-cumulus complexes (OCC), derived from 3 to 6mm follicles, were cultured in a chemically defined medium (pyruvate-free mNCSU37-PVA), with or without 5.55 mM glucose, during in vitro maturation (IVM); in the absence of glucose, germinal vesicle breakdown (GVBD) and...

Developing oocytes produce materials that will support early embryonic development then cease transcription before fertilization. Later, a distinct transcription program is established in the embryo. Little is understood about how these global gene regulation transitions are effected. We have investigated in C. elegans how oocyte transcription is influenced by maturation, a process that release...

Background: This study was carried out to evaluate the pattern of reactive oxygen species (ROS) variations during in vitro oocyte maturation and embryo development in sheep, and to investigate whether embryo culture condition and the presence of cell-permeable superoxide dismutase mimetic [Manganese (III) meso-tetrakis (4-benzoic acid) porphyrin (MnTBAP)] can influence ROS pattern. Materials an...