background: oocyte cryopreservation is one of the most important topics in the field of assisted reproductive technology to preserve women fertility, but relationship between cryopreservation and apoptosis is still a matter of debate. the present study was aimed to investigate the effects of vitrification on apoptosis in mouse oocytes by cryotop method. method: a total of 200 germinal vesicle (...

In their midthirties, women experience a decline in fertility, coupled to a pronounced increase in the risk of aneuploidy, miscarriage, and birth defects. Although the aetiology of such pathologies are complex, a causative relationship between the age-related decline in oocyte quality and oxidative stress (OS) is now well established. What remains less certain are the molecular mechanisms gover...

During the last decade oocyte donation has been highly successful for treating women previously thought to be hopelessly infertile. The pregnancy rate after oocyte donation is among the highest reported for any fertility-enhancing procedure. Most investigators have noted an increased rate of obstetric complications in these pregnancies. In particular, pregnancy-induced hypertension appears to o...

Maturation arrest of human oocytes may occur at various stages of the cell cycle. A total failure of human oocytes to complete meiosis is rarely observed during assisted conception cycles. We describe here a case series of infertile couples for whom all oocytes repeatedly failed to mature during IVF/ICSI. Eight couples, all presenting with unexplained infertility, underwent controlled ovarian s...

Assisted reproductive techniques such as oocyte transfer and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) can be used clinically to produce foals from mares with reproductive abnormalities that prevent normal breeding or production of embryos. ICSI can also be used to produce foals from stallions with poor fertility or from semen with limited quantity. Both of these procedures require the collection...

In the past decade, assisted reproductive technologies (ART) such as oocyte transfer, intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), and nuclear transfer (cloning) have become effective enough for clinical use. ART such as oocyte transfer and ICSI allow production of foals from mares that cannot provide an embryo by standard embryo-transfer procedures. For the equine practitioner, application of ART ...

Cancer may be detected at any age and could affect children, and reproductive age women as well. In recent years, cancer treatment has become less destructive and more specific. As a result, survival rates and quality of life following successful treatment have continuously improved. Cancer treatment typically involves surgery, chemo- or radiation therapy, or the combinations of these. These in...

BACKGROUND During the last years, several studies have reported the significant relationship between the production of soluble HLA-G molecules (sHLA-G) by 48-72 hours early embryos and an increased implantation rate in IVF protocols. As consequence, the detection of HLA-G modulation was suggested as a marker to identify the best embryos to be transferred. On the opposite, no suitable markers ar...

The recent surge of interest in oocyte development has been spurred in large part by the increasing implementation of assisted reproductive technologies (ART) to treat human infertility. What is becoming apparent is that 'egg quality' is a primary factor in the success of ART (Sauer 1998), and yet we know virtually nothing about the molecular signature of a 'high quality' oocyte, i.e., an oocyt...