AIMS We hypothesized that hair-follicle stem cells can differentiate toward smooth contractile muscle cells, providing an autologous cell source for cardiovascular tissue regeneration. METHODS AND RESULTS Smooth muscle progenitor cells (SMPCs) were obtained from ovine hair follicles using a tissue-specific promoter and fluorescence-activated cell sorting. Hair-follicle smooth muscle progenito...

Administration of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) induces a surge of luteinizing hormone and ovulation in a variety of species, including human beings. Our objectives were to determine the effect of follicle size at the time of ovulation on corpus luteum function and establishment and maintenance of pregnancy in cows in which ovulation was either spontaneous or induced with GnRH. GnRH-ind...

background: in vitro maturation (ivm) of immature oocytes collected from ovary has been proposed for fertility preservation. in addition, quality of oocytes post ivm is one of the factors determining its developmental competence. by using the non-invasive polscope system, both meiotic spindle (ms) and zona pellucida (zp) can be assessed in living oocytes. objective: the aim was to investigate t...

background: polycystic ovary syndrome (pcos) is a disorder in which there are numerous benign cysts that form on ovaries under a thick white covering that is one of the causes of infertility. follistatin is a single chain glycosylated polypeptide that can bind to activin. when follistatin binds to activin it suppresses the role of activin to stimulate the secretion of follicle stimulating hormo...

The southern banded guitarfish, Zapteryx xyster, and the Velez ray, Raja velezi, are two endemic elasmobranchs in eastern Tropical Pacific that commonly caught by bottom-trawl fishery. Reproductive cycles of these batoids were inferred from hepatosomatic gonadosomatic indexes (males females) oviductal gland width yolk follicle diameter (females) mature specimens collected along Costa Rica betwe...

introduction: melatonin acts as an indirect antioxidant and is a powerful direct free radical scavenger and direct responses to melatonin in the gonads are detected. this study aims to investigate the influence of different doses of melatonin on preantral follicle development and oogenesis of in vitro cultured mouse ovarian follicles. materials and methods: preantral follicles with diameters of...

Here, we studied hair follicle development of Liaoning Cashmere goats. Every month for 1 year, skin samples were collected from five 1.5-year-old female goats, and made into paraffin sections. A number of parameters were measured of primary and secondary hair follicles via microscopic observation including follicle depth, hair bulb width, dermis and epidermis thickness, changes in follicle acti...

The ovarian follicle is a major site of steroidogenesis, crucially required for normal ovarian function and female reproduction. Our understanding of androgen synthesis and metabolism in the developing follicle has been limited by the sensitivity and specificity issues of previously used assays. Here we used liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry to map the stage-dependent endogenous st...

Objective The aim of this study was to compare the effect of corifollitropin alfa (CFA) and recombinant follicle-stimulating hormone (rFSH) in poor-responder patients undergoing antagonist cycles. Materials and Methods The study was a retrospective analysis of the treatment results of 214 poor responder patients who had been admitted to the In Vitro Fertilization Unit of İzmir Medical Park Ho...

Constant levels of thyroid hormones in the blood are principal requirements for normal vertebrate development. Their release depends on the regulated proteolysis of thyroglobulin which is extracellularly stored in the follicle lumen under resting conditions. Thyroglobulin is proteolytically degraded to a major part in lysosomes, but in part also extracellularly leading to the release of thyroxi...