BACKGROUND Family and pregnancy planning issues are important among human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive individuals and couples. However, access to fertility services may be limited for this population. The objective of this study was to estimate the types of services available in fertility clinics in Canada for these individuals. METHODS A survey was sent to all registered fertility ...

OBJECTIVE We investigated whether the insemination method (in vitro fertilization [IVF] or intracytoplasmic sperm injection [ICSI]) affected morphokinetic events and abnormal cleavage events in embryonic development. METHODS A total of 1,830 normal fertilized embryos were obtained from 272 IVF and ICSI cycles that underwent ovum retrieval culture using a time-lapse system (Embryoscope) from J...

Efforts have intensified to successfully mature and inseminate oocytes in vitro and then culture ensuing embryos to transferable stages from a large number of mammalian species. Success varies, but generally even for the most successful species it is only possible to obtain a maximum of a 40 to 50% development of zygotes to the blastocyst stage. Reduced oocyte developmental competence is sugges...

Successful in vitro fertilization (IVF) in mice has been achieved using spermatozoa at concentrations specifically optimized for the experimental conditions, such as species and source of spermatozoa. Although IVF in mice is mostly performed using about 80-500 µl drops, it is expected that the number of spermatozoa used for insemination can be reduced by decreasing the size of the IVF drops. Th...

The present paper evaluates the influence of various technical factors when preparing human spermatozoa to be tested for their ability to penetrate zona-free hamster ova. Higher in vitro fertilization rates were obtained after sperm selection by "swim-up" migration, 4-h incubation, sperm dilution to a concentration of 2.5 X 10(6) spermatozoa/ml, and observation of the oocytes 8 h after insemina...

Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) is a useful technique for creating pig strains that model human diseases. However, production of numerous cloned disease model pigs by SCNT for large-scale experiments is impractical due to its complexity and inefficiency. In the present study, we aimed to establish an efficient procedure for proliferating the diabetes model pig carrying the mutant human hep...

The present study was designed to evaluate how environmental factors in a dry-summer subtropical climate in Terceira-Azores (situated in the North Atlantic Ocean: 38° 43' N 27° 12' W) can affect dairy cow (Holstein) fertility, as well as seasonal influence on in vitro oocytes maturation and embryos development. Impact of heat shock (HS) effects on in vitro oocyte's maturation and further embryo...

The efforts of Drs. Patrick C. Steptoe and Robert G. Edwards in England culminated in the birth of Louise Brown on July 25, 1978, as a result of in vitro fertilization and reimplantation of the human embryo into the mother's womb.' The same investigators later reported the birth of a boy by this technique. 2 Since then, several hundred babies have been born by this methodology. More recently, f...