BACKGROUND With infertility populations in the developed world rapidly aging, treatment of diminished ovarian reserve (DOR) assumes increasing clinical importance. Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) has been reported to improve pregnancy chances with DOR, and is now utilized by approximately one third of all IVF centers world-wide. Increasing DHEA utilization and publication of a first prospectively...

Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) is a common endocrine-reproductive disease in females. PCOS patients show decreased ovary granular cells, which is possibly related with cell apoptosis. This study thus aimed to investigate the apoptotic mechanism in PCOS via measuring the protein expressions of apoptosis and anti-apoptosis related molecules in PCOS patients. A total of 30 PCOS patients were rec...

Background: In recent years, transplantation of cryopreserved ovarian tissue has proved to be a promising approach to restore fertility in cancer patients. However, such a procedure cannot be carried out in women at risk of ovarian involvement due to the threat of reintroducing malignant cells. The aim of this study was therefore to create an artificial ovary as an alternative to restore fertil...

BACKGROUND This study tested factors affecting mouse follicle growth in vitro, to determine end-points marking follicle function in vitro. METHODS Pre-antral follicles (mean 137 microm) from B6CBF1 mice were cultured in a substrate-adherent system for < or = 14 days. FSH (0-1000 mIU/ml) day of HCG (1.5 IU/ml days 9-14) protein supplement [fetal calf serum (FCS) (x2) mouse serum (x2) hypogonad...

Follicle culture systems have been developed so as to achieve in vitro fertilization of oocytes coming from immature follicles. The in vitro folliculogenesis methods would be especially useful in reproductive medicine to restore fertility in women having undergone ovarian cryopreservation. Several culture systems allowing in vitro growth of small follicles have been developed in mouse. These ha...

Previous studies have reported many discrepancies about the best type and concentration of cryoprotective agents (CPAs) and biological variability among various pre-antral follicle classes after cryopreservation of ovarian tissue. The aim of this study was to investigate the impacts of some synthetic polymers on histological characteristics of different types of pre-antral follicles after bovin...