Human ovarian follicular fluid contains renin-like activity. In normal women, circulating levels of prorenin, the biosynthetic precursor of renin (EC 3.4.23.15), change in parallel with changes in progesterone during the menstrual cycle. Therefore, the ovary has been implicated as a source of plasma prorenin. In the present studies, we report the finding of high concentrations of prorenin in hu...

BACKGROUND The Fallopian tube undergoes well-recognized changes during the ovarian cycle. Ciliary beat frequency (CBF) increases during the secretory phase of the cycle. The stimulus is unknown, although CBF is known to be hormone responsive. At ovulation, follicular fluid is released into the peritoneal cavity and enters the Fallopian tube. We hypothesized that this fluid may provide the stimu...

Leukaemia inhibitory factor (LIF) is a 43 kDa glycoprotein with a remarkable range of biological actions in different tissue systems. LIF improves the rate of fertilization of mouse oocytes in vitro and up-regulates aromatase enzyme. We postulated that LIF may be an important modulator of ovarian function and may also improve embryo quality in humans. Follicular fluid samples from patients unde...

Background: Endometriosis is the growth of endometrial cells outside the uterine cavity. It has been suggested that immune system plays important roles in both initiation and progression of the disease. Several studies have been shown that women with endometriosis diverge in their expression of different genes including heat-shock proteins, fibronectin, and neutrophil elastase, which might be i...

Insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) and IGF binding protein-3 (IGFBP-3) play an important role in regulating follicle growth and maturation. We have evaluated whether responsiveness to gonadotrophins during an in-vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment is related to follicular fluid IGF-I and IGFBP-3 concentrations. We also investigated if a difference is present in IGF-I and IGFBP-3 concentration...

A family of C29 4,4-dimethylsterol intermediates in the cholesterol biosynthetic pathway from lanosterol has been found to induce oocytes to resume meiosis.[248] One of these sterols, 4,4-dimethyl-5α-cholest-8,14,24-triene-3β-ol, was extracted from human follicular fluid and named follicular fluid meiosis–activating substance (FF-MAS). A related compound, 4,4-dimethyl-5α-cholest-8,24-diene-3β-o...

BACKGROUND A poor quality of oocytes and embryos and a low fertilization rate have been found in polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) patients. An inverse association between follicular fluid homocysteine (Hcy) levels and oocyte and embryo quality has also been demonstrated. We examined the relationship between follicular fluid Hcy concentrations and oocyte and embryo quality in PCOS patients under...