This study examined effects on the developmental competence of pig oocytes after somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) or parthenogenetic activation (PA) of : 1) co-culturing of oocytes with follicular shell pieces (FSP) during in vitro maturation (IVM); 2) different durations of maturation; and 3) defined maturation medium supplemented with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA; control), pig follicular fluid...

objective: oxidative stress as a consequence of aging can induce infertility in males. in this study, we have investigated the effects of aging on sperm parameters, intra-spermatic water soluble antioxidants, reactive oxygen species (ros), and in vitro blastocyst formation. methods: we chose 5 older nmri male mice (10-12 months) and 5 younger nmri male mice (2-3 months). sperm parameters, ros, ...

The aim of this study was to identify an optimal method for the parthenogenetic activation of mouse oocytes. Ethanol (EH), strontium chloride (SrCl2) and ionomycin calcium salt were each combined with cytochalasin B to induce the parthenogenetic activation of CD-1® mouse oocytes. Among the EH combination groups, the blastocyst formation and hatching rates of the group that was activated with EH...

The Na(+)/K(+)-ATPase plays a pivotal role during preimplantation development; it establishes a trans-epithelial ionic gradient that facilitates the formation of the fluid-filled blastocyst cavity, crucial for implantation and successful pregnancy. The Na(+)/K(+)-ATPase is also implicated in regulating tight junctions and cardiotonic steroid (CTS)-induced signal transduction via SRC. We investi...

This study aimed to evaluate the effect of essential (EAAs) and non-essential (NEAAs) amino acids (AAs) at levels of 25 and 25 or 50 and 50 μl/ml, respectively, on in vitro developmental potential of rabbit embryos at 4and 8-cell stages. Total of 12 sexual mature New Zealand White (NZW) rabbit does and 3 fertile NZW bucks were used in this study. All does and bucks were kept under similar condi...

The aim of this study was to review the experience and outcomes of assisted reproduction cycles with embryos grown up to day 5 of development, comparing different parameters according to the ages of the patients. We retrospectively studied 1,874 assisted reproduction cycles where embryo culture was extended up to the fifth or sixth day of development. All IVF and ICSI cycles were included, comp...

We have analyzed the expression of the cytokine leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) during embryogenesis and in tissues of neonatal and adult mice. The site of the most abundant LIF expression is the uterine endometrial glands, specifically on day 4 of pregnancy. Analysis of LIF expression in pseudopregnant mice and in females undergoing delayed implantation showed that it is under maternal contro...

UNLABELLED BACKGROUND Successful egg cryopreservation has many potential benefits to a variety of patients. However, a superior standard protocol describing all aspects of oocyte cryopreservation has not yet been identified. Oocyte cryopreservation is still a technical challenge for many infertility clinics. To maintain satisfactory clinical outcomes, there is a need to develop an easy to us...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the dose effect of recombinant mouse granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (rmGM-CSF) or brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in culture medium on the development of in vitro fertilized mouse embryos. METHODS Mature oocytes were retrieved from superovulated female BDF1 mice and inseminated by sperm from male BDF1 mice. On day 1, two-cell stage embryos were...

Short incubation time prevents deleterious effects of cumulus cell degeneration and excess spermatozoa in IVF embryos. We performed a short incubation (3 h) protocol in 328 IVF cycles, in order to compare the developmental potential of regular IVF embryos with those originating from 316 cycles entered our intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) programme over the same period. Embryo transfers w...