Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) affects 5% of reproductive aged women and is the leading cause of anovulatory infertility. A hallmark of PCOS is excessive theca cell androgen secretion, which is directly linked to the symptoms of PCOS. Our previous studies demonstrated that theca cells from PCOS ovaries maintained in long term culture persistently secrete significantly greater amounts of andro...

background: umbilical cord tissue is a very rich source of mesenchymal stem cells. instead of discarding this source we are banking the tissue along with cord blood for possible future cell based applications. the cord tissue needs to be transported and stored properly in order for it to be good enough for cell isolation at a later date. in this paper we have carried out a validation study to d...

introduction : use of adipose-derived stem cells (adscs) is a suggested hypothesis to enhance the regeneration of bone defects. this technique is of particular interest since adscs are more easily accessible via a non-invasive harvesting technique compared to bone marrow stem cells (bmscs). this study sought to assess the efficacy of adsc implantation for regeneration of localized mandibular bo...

17alpha-Hydroxylase (CYP17) expression in propagated theca cells isolated from the ovaries of women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is persistently elevated, compared with theca cells isolated from normal ovaries. To investigate the mechanism for increased CYP17 messenger RNA accumulation in PCOS theca cells, we examined CYP17 and steroidogenic acute regulatory protein (StAR) promoter act...

Oocyte control of granulosa and theca cell function may be mediated by several growth factors via a local feedback loop(s) between these cell types. This study examined both the role of oocyte-secreted factors on granulosa and thecal cells, cultured independently and in co-culture, and the effect of stem cell factor (SCF); a granulosa cell derived peptide that appears to have multiple roles in ...

Hyperandrogenism is characteristic of women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). Ovarian theca cells isolated from PCOS follicles and maintained in long-term culture produce elevated levels of progestins and androgens compared to normal theca cells. Augmented steroid production in PCOS theca cells is associated with changes in the expression of genes for several steroidogenic enzymes, includi...

background: the definitive endoderm (de) differentiation using the undefined media and non-human feeders can cause contaminations in the generated cells for therapeutic applications. therefore, generating safer and more appropriate de cells is needed. this study compared five different methods to establish an appropriate method for inducing an efficient de differentiation from human induced plu...

Vitellogenic stage carp ovaries were collected aseptically and the cells of ovarian follicles were dispersed by trypsin treatment and cultivated as monolayer. Control cultures were grown in medium M199 alone. Media for experimental cultures were supplemented either with 100 µl ml-1 of CPH and CPS-carp GnRH (cultivated pituitary cell secretion affected by 10-6, 10-8, 10-10 M carp GnRH). The dire...

Coordinated interactions between ovarian granulosa and theca cells are required for female endocrine function and fertility. To elucidate these interactions the regulation of the granulosa and theca cell transcriptomes during bovine antral follicle development were investigated. Granulosa cells and theca cells were isolated from small (<5 mm), medium (5-10 mm), and large (>10 mm) antral bovine ...