objective: the present study aimed to simultaneously evaluate the association between expression of three potential factors [post-acrosomal sheath ww domain-binding protein (pawp), phospholipase cζ (plcζ), and truncated form of the kit receptor (tr-kit)] as candidates of oocyte activation with fertilization rate and early embryonic development. materials and methods: in this experimental study,...

Background: Artificial oocyte activation (AOA) has important implications in assisted reproductive technique (ART) with particular importance in somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). Parthenogenesis activation using zona- free oocytes offers an alternative model that could be applied to develop protocols for the activation of reconstructed embryos for cloning. Materials and Methods: To establis...

pelvic inflammatory disease (pid) is a rare complication of transvaginal oocyte retrieval. it may result in failure of assisted reproductive techniques (art). during a 7 years period, 5958 transvaginal ultrasound-guided oocyte retrievals resulted in 10 cases of acute pid. eight out of 10 patients were diagnosed infertile because of endometriosis. two patients had mild ovarian, 3 had stage iii, ...

BACKGROUND Globozoospermia is a rare (incidence of 0.1% among andrological patients) and poorly understood condition, but a severe disorder in male infertility. This case report detailed the course of treatment and protocol of a patient with type 1 globozoospermia using Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI) and oocyte activation by calcium ionophore, which yielded conception and birth of a he...

Background: Oocyte cryopreservation is of utmost importance in the current repertories of assisted reproductive technology (ART). Despite this, oocyte vitrification is yet a problematic issue with limited successful pregnancies has been arisen after transfer of embryos derived from vitrified-warmed oocytes. In this sense, great attention has been paid to investigate possible mechanisms underlyi...

Understanding the mechanisms regulating oocyte developmental competence is essential to enhance the clinical efficiency of assisted reproduction. FSH orchestrates the acquisition of oocyte competence, both in vivo and in vitro. Multiple pathways are implicated in FSH signalling; however, their precise coordination remains unresolved. A robust system to investigate FSH signalling is oocyte in vi...

OBJECTIVE We found previously that interferon regulatory factor (Irf)-1 is a germinal vesicle (GV)-selective gene that highly expressed in GV as compared to metaphase II oocytes. To our knowledge, the function of Irf-1 in oocytes has yet to be examined. The present study was conducted to determine the relationship between retinoic acid (RA) and RA-mediated expression of Irf-1 and the mouse oocy...

Fertilization in vivo is a complex process consisting of six steps, namely, penetration of the cumulus complex, binding of the sperm to the zona pellucida, fusion of oocyte and sperm, oocyte activation, sperm remodelling, and formation of the pronuclei. Since ICSI bypasses the first three steps any problem related to fertilization failure after ICSI arises from oocyte activation onwards. Accord...

Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is a relatively long-lived signaling molecule that plays an essential role in oocyte maturation, implantation, as well as early embryonic development. Exposure to relatively high levels of H2O2 functions efficiently to accelerate oocyte aging and deteriorate oocyte quality. However, little precise information exists regarding intra-oocyte H2O2 concentrations, and its di...

background: human chorionic gonadotropin (hcg) has been used as a replacement for the mid-cycle luteinizing hormone (lh) surge for several years. the recent arrival of recombinant dna technology has made recombinant hcg (rhcg) accessible. objective: to assess efficacy of rhcg compared to urinary hcg (uhcg) for triggering of ovulation and induction of final oocyte maturation in assisted reproduc...