With extended periods of time following ovulation, the metaphase II stage oocyte experiences deterioration in quality referred to as post-ovulatory oocyte ageing. Post-ovulatory ageing occurs both in vivo and in vitro and has been associated with reduced fertilization rates, poor embryo quality, post-implantation errors and abnormalities in the offspring. Although the physiological consequences...

Ovarian follicular development occurs in a hierarchical manner with each follicle having a unique biochemical composition at any moment in time. It has long been understood that a precise coordination between the growth and maturation of the oocyte and adjacent follicular cells (i.e. somatic cells) is essential in order to produce an oocyte that is fully competent to undergo fertilization and e...

Oocyte maturation is critical for successful fertilization and pregnancy. The mechanism underlying the control of this complex process remain relatively unknown, and even more so the specific mechanism through which oocytes acquire competentce to restrain apoptosis and resume meiosis. Insulin-like Growth Factor 1 (IGF-1) is a growth factor that had been frequently used in inducing oocyte matura...

Brusatol is a natural quassinoid that shows a potential therapeutic use in cancer models by the inhibition of Nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) and is capable of inducing a variety of biological effects. The effects of Brusatol on oocyte meiosis has not been addressed. In this study, we investigated the impact of Brusatol treatment on mouse oocyte maturation and its possible me...

The controlled target extracellular matrix (ECM) degradation generated by serine protease and regulated by serine protease inhibitor and ovarian paracrine/autocrine factors is an event that affects a wide variety of physiological and pathological processes in the ovary. Evidence cumulated in the past decade clearly showed that the hormone-induced coordinated expression of the tissue-type PA (tP...

Vitellogenin (1, 2) is a sex-limited phosphoprotein secreted by the liver in Xenopus females (3, 4) and selectively transferred via the circulatory system to growing oocytes, within which it is converted into the yolk proteins lipovitellin and phosvitin (3, 5, 6) . Selective uptake (7) and conversion (8) of vitellogenin can also take place in isolated oocytes . The available evidence indicates ...

Growing mouse oocytes and fertilized ova were injected with chicken ovalbumin messenger RNA (mRNAov) and chicken conalbumin mRNA (mRNAcon) and cultured in vitro. Estimation of mRNAov and mRNAcon stability by hybridization of cDNAov and cDNAcon to extracted mRNA from injected oocytes and fertilized ova indicated a half-life of 147 and 366 h in the oocyte and 5 and 3 h in the fertilized ovum resp...

Leptin, the 16-kDa product of the obese (ob) gene, primarily secreted from adipose tissue, has been implicated to play an important role in the regulation of food intake and energy expenditure. This study investigated protective effect of leptin on trichostatin A-induced apoptotic on in vitro maturation ratio of buffalo oocytes. Ovaries were collected from abattoir and were transported immediat...