Fertilization is triggered by changes in intracellular calcium concentration. In mammals, these transients in ooplasmic calcium concentration take the form of repetitive spikes, so called calcium oscillations (Ca-oscillations). These oscillations are important for relieve of meiotic arrest and to induce all the other events of oocyte activation. Although a surface mediated way of oocyte activat...

Various morphological and cytological traits of oocytes and their surrounding cumulus cells may be used to select oocytes for assisted reproduction. However, even with careful selection, successful IVF and subsequent embryo development remain uncertain. The factors that ensure oocyte competence are unclear and other approaches to assessing developmental potential must be explored. With the cons...

Recent progress in cell micromanipulation has made it possible to achieve fertilization even with highly deficient male gametes, by injecting them directly to oocyte cytoplasm. This technique, known as intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), has proved efficient in most types of sperm pathology. However, ICSI fails when injected spermatozoa are not capable of supporting the process of oocyte a...

Pregnancy achieved with sperm from a patient with globozoospermia is rare, even after ICSI, since the activation of the oocyte may not occur in this disorder. Therefore, activation of the oocytes by piezoelectricity or calcium ionophores has been suggested, although spontaneous activation of the oocyte after ICSI has been reported in some cases. We report a successful pregnancy in a couple in w...

Female reproductive potential is dictated by the size of the primordial follicle pool and the correct regulation of oocyte maturation and activation—events essential for production of viable offspring. Although a substantial body of work underpins our understanding of these processes, the molecular mechanisms of follicular and oocyte development are not fully understood. This review summarizes ...

BACKGROUND The complexity of fertilization failure during assisted reproductive technologies (ART) is often under-appreciated, as this failure can occur at any number of essential mechanistic and cellular events. Importantly, successful fertilization is heavily dependent upon inherent qualities of the oocytes, and thus reliant upon fidelity of oocyte maturation. METHODS Pubmed and medline wer...

Previous cases reported recurrent all oocytes in repeated cycles were arrested at MI failed to mature after culture and ICSI resulted total nonfertilization. Ionomycin induced first PB extrusion patients with maturation-resistant oocytes. combined assisted oocyte activation (AOA) on MII matured vitro abnormal fertilization no further embryo cleavage potential. The objective of this work was res...