BACKGROUND Aim of the study was to investigate whether menstrual cycle length may be considered as a surrogate measure of reproductive health, improving the accuracy of biochemical/sonographical ovarian reserve test in estimating the reproductive chances of women referred to ART. METHODS A retrospective-observational-study in Padua' public tertiary level Centre was conducted. A total of 455 n...

Increasing evidence shows that melatonin protected against age-related mitochondrial oxidative damage. However, the protective effects of melatonin against ovarian aging has not been explored. Young Kunming females (aged 2-3 months) were fed with melatonin added to drinking water for 6 or 12 months (mo). We found that long-term (12 mo) melatonin treatment significantly reduced ovarian aging, as...

The ovary receives a finite pool of follicles during fetal life. Atresia remains the major form of follicular expenditure at all stages since development of ovary. The follicular reserve, however, declines at an exponential rate leading to accelerated rate of decay during the years preceding menopause. We examined if diminished follicle reserve that characterizes ovarian aging impacts the attri...

Rising serum FSH levels is one of the earliest signs of human female reproductive aging. Whether or not elevated FSH remains a passive reflection of a diminishing ovarian follicle pool or actively contributes to declining female fertility with age has not been established. We therefore investigated female reproduction in mice expressing progressively rising serum levels of transgenic human FSH ...

BACKGROUND The Hippo signaling pathway plays fundamental roles in stem cell maintenance in a variety of tissues and has thus implications for stem cell biology. Key components of this recently discovered pathway have been shown to be associated with primordial follicle activation. However, whether the Hippo signaling pathway plays a role in the development of Ovarian Germline Stem Cells (OGSCs)...

OBJECTIVE To determine possible prediction of regular menses with aging in anovulatory women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). DESIGN Cohort. SETTING Academic practice. PATIENT(S) A total of 54 anovulatory women with PCOS and 28 age- and weight-matched control subjects. INTERVENTION(S) Blood and ovarian ultrasound at baseline and after 5 years. MAJOR OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Serum antim...

Previous studies analysing the incidences of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) deletions and mtDNA content in unfertilized oocytes in relation to donors' age have been controversial. The objective of the study was to compare these two parameters in unfertilized oocytes and relate them to the donors' age. Fifty-two women donated 155 unfertilized metaphase II (MII) oocytes. The incidence of 4977 bp delet...