BACKGROUND The purpose of this study was to investigate the chromosomal complement and developmental potential of in-vitro matured murine oocytes following ICSI by human sperm. METHODS Heterologous ICSI fertilization between mouse oocytes and human sperm was employed in order to overcome the reduced fertilization rates observed after conventional IVF due to zona hardening during in-vitro matu...

BACKGROUND Giant binuclear oocytes occur with considerable frequency in human ovaries, but their ultimate fate remains unknown. We report the morphology, cytogenetics and developmental potential of human giant oocytes from patients undergoing assisted reproductive technologies. METHODS AND RESULTS A total of 44 giant oocytes was collected from patients aged 22-44 years old, with an overall fr...

Background: We have recently shown that human embryonic (hESCs) and induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) can differentiate into advanced spermatogenic cells including round spermatids by in vitro culture (Easley et al., Direct differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells into haploid spermatogenic cells. Cell Reports 2, 440-446 2012) and also, in collaboration, that rhesus spermatogonial ...

Background: The cryopreservation of human oocyte would make a significant contribution to infertility treatment, such as using it for oocyte donation and for patients a bout to lose ovarian function due to surgery or chemotherapy. Despite of using standard freezing straws and cryovials or even open pulled straws, only a few successful pregnancies have been arisen from cryopreserved human oocyte...

BACKGROUND Rhesus macaque and human preimplantation embryos display similar rates of chromosomal abnormalities. The aim of this study was to determine whether embryos developing from MI oocytes that mature post-retrieval display more chromosomal anomalies than those embryos that are generated from oocytes that are at MII at the time of retrieval. METHODS Rhesus macaque oocytes were obtained a...

objective: this study evaluated in vitro maturation (ivm) of oocytes in the germinal vesicle (gv) stage in stimulated intracytoplasmic sperm injection (icsi) cycles. materials and methods: a total of 26 women, aged 18 -37 years, who were candidates for icsi at the fatemeh zahra infertility and health reproductive research center in 2007 were recruited for this study. we used the standard long p...

Prevalence of Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome(PCOS) in Iran is more than 6%. Therefore we encounter with many PCOS patients. In Vitro Maturation (IVM) of oocytes as an attractive method in ART is considered. Studies show that changes in culture conditions should be administered to make IVM protocol more successful .For this purpose in this study we have set up the beneficial cultures for IVM proced...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the presence of programmed cell death in unfertilized oocytes after intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), assuming that previous apoptotic events could be correlated with the fertilization failure. DESIGN Comparison of the rate of DNA fragmentation in human oocytes at different stages of maturation soon after pick-up (control) and in unfertilized oocytes after ICSI...

BACKGROUND Chilling injury occurs when the cell membrane undergoes a transition from the liquid state to the gel state. Human oocytes and single-cell zygotes are of similar shape and size but the post-thawing survival rate of oocytes is poorer. We set out to investigate the possible difference in membrane lipid phase transition (LPT) temperature between the two cell types. METHODS The LPT tem...