The objective of the present study was to identify sperm abnormalities in young male patients with juvenile dermatomyositis (JDM). In 2005, 18 male JDM patients, diagnosed according to the criteria of Bohan and Peter, were followed at the Pediatric Rheumatology Unit and Rheumatology Division, of our Institution. Of the 18 males, 11 were pre-pubertal and 7 were post-pubertal. Two of 7 post-puber...

Hepatotoxins are frequently produced by many cyanobacterial species. Microcystins (MCs) are the most frequent and widely studied hepatotoxins, with potentially hazardous repercussions on aquatic organisms. As a ubiquitous herbivore living in eutrophic freshwaters, the snail Lymnaea stagnalis (Gastropoda: Pulmonata) is particularly exposed to cyanobacteria. The toxic filamentous Planktothrix aga...

background: mesenchymal stem cells (mscs) are undifferentiated cells that can differentiate and divide to other cell types. transplantation of these cells to the different organs is used for curing various diseases. objective: the aim of this research was whether mscs transplantation could treat the sterile testes. materials and methods: in this experimental study, donor mscs were isolated from...

Acute and sub-acute toxic effects of a novel phosphorothionate coded as RPR-II on testis of albino rats were studied. In acute study rats received a single dose of 12.3 mg/kg of RPR-II and sacrificed after 24 hr. For sub-acute study 0.58 mg/kg/day was administered orally to rats for 10 and 21 days. Acute exposure of rats to RPR-II brought no change either in the gonadosomatic index (GSI) or in ...

Trypanosoma cruzi, the etiological agent of Chagas disease, is a polymorphic species. Evidence suggests that the majority of the T. cruzi populations isolated from afflicted humans, reservoir animals, or vectors are multiclonal. However, the extent and the complexity of multiclonality remain to be established, since aneuploidy cannot be excluded and current conventional cloning methods cannot i...

BACKGROUND The Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas (Mollusca, Lophotrochozoa) is an alternative and irregular protandrous hermaphrodite: most individuals mature first as males and then change sex several times. Little is known about genetic and phenotypic basis of sex differentiation in oysters, and little more about the molecular pathways regulating reproduction. We have recently developed and va...

Sexuality in the marine araphid diatom Tabularia involves an unusual type of gamete, not only among diatoms but possibly in all of nature. The non-flagellated male gamete is free and vigorously motile, propelled by pseudopodia. However, the cues (if any) in their search for compatible female gametes and the general search patterns to locate them are unknown. We tracked and compared male gamete ...

Background: Sperm cryopreservation is an important tool for breed improvement, nonetheless, spermatozoids of rams are extremely sensitive to cryopreservation. Aims: The present research was to compare a liposome-based (OptiXcell: OX) diluent, a commercial TRIS-egg yolk (Optidyl: OP) and a citrate egg yolk-based (CY) diluent on ovine semen quality through the cr...

The world population is 6.4 billion people approximately and is constantly growing. In this context, there is the expectation that it will reach 8.1 billion in 2030 and nine billion in 2050. In the next 25 years, this population growth will demand some 50% increase in food production. So, the world will be required some 53% increase in meat production, therefore elevating from 367 to 562 millio...

About 15% of couples that desire children are affected by infertility. Oxidative stress has been involved in unexplained subfertility with a male factor [1]. Although the excessive production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) is detrimental to human spermatozoa, there is a growing body of evidence that suggests that ROS are also involved in the physiological control of some sperm functions. Unde...