Background: Sildenafil causes vasodilatation by relaxing the smooth muscles of blood vessels. This enhances endometrial development, the health of which is indispensable for implantation and embryonic and fetal development. Aim: To assess the role of Sildenafil when used in ovulation induction cycles with Clomiphene Citrate (CC) with reference to Endometrial Thickness (ET), follicular developme...

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of GnRH, LH, hCG or exogenous progesterone administration on plasma progesterone concentrations and pregnancy rates following embryo transfer in Bos taurus x Bos indicus cross-bred heifers. In Experiment 1, animals with body condition scores 3.5 (1 to 5 scale) were synchronized with two injections of a prostaglandin F2 analog 13 days apart. He...

BACKGROUND Home pregnancy testing devices claim >99% diagnostic accuracy for pregnancy and utility on the first day of the missed menses or earlier. We investigated the forms of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) in early pregnancy urines, the diagnostic accuracy claim, and the abilities of 15 devices to detect the different forms of hCG. METHODS We measured the concentrations of regular hCG ...

BACKGROUND This is the first study of the effect of epidermal growth factor (EGF) on marmoset monkey oocytes matured in vitro. METHODS We have evaluated the effects of 10 ng/ml EGF in combination with 1 or 10 IU/ml of gonadotrophins (FSH/hCG 1:1 ratio) during in vitro maturation (IVM) of marmoset oocytes. Immature cumulus-oocyte complexes (COCs) were retrieved from ovarian antral follicles of...

Human choriogonadotropin (hCG) and free hCG-beta values for 934 serum samples from patients with seminomatous or nonseminomatous testicular cancer were measured by highly specific immunoradiometric assays (IRMAS). In non-seminoma samples, hCG and hCG-beta were highly correlated (r = 0.82, P less than 0.001). Of 112 "marker-positive" seminoma samples, only 46 (41.1%) showed both increased hCG an...

S p e c i f i c b i n d i n g o f r a d i o l a b e l e d human c h o r i o n i c g o n a d o t r o p i n (hCG) t o n u c l e i i s o l a t e d from p s e u d o p r e g n a n t r a t o v a r i e s was s t u d i e d . I n c u b a t i o n of c u l t u r e d l u t e a l c e l l s or i s o l a t e d n u c l e i w i t h f l u o r e s c e i n i s o t h i o c y a n a t e c o n j u g a t e d hCG showed...

We have recently succeeded in immortalizing rat granulosa cells by co-transfection with SV-40 DNA and the Ha-ras oncogene. These cells lost their response to gonadotropins, but expressed the cytochrome P450scc mitochondrial system enzymes and produced progesterone and 20 alpha-hydroxy-4-pregnan-3-one (20 alpha-OH-P) upon cAMP stimulation (Suh, B. S., and A. Amsterdam. 1990. Endocrinology. 127:2...

Purpose This study aimed to evaluate and validate the qualitative human chorionic gonadotropin β subunit (β-hCG) test of the vaginal fluid washings of pregnant women with premature rupture of fetal membranes (PROM). Methods Cross-sectional study of pregnant women between gestational weeks 24 and 39 who underwent consultations in one of our institutions. They were divided into two groups: group ...

Although color Doppler ultrasonography has been used to evaluate testicular blood flow in many species, very little has been done in goat. Eight male Shiba goats were exposed to a single intramuscular injection of either gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH group; 1 µg/kg BW) or human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG group; 25 IU/kg BW). Plasma testosterone (T), estradiol (E2) and inhibin (INH) were...

BACKGROUND Hyperglycosylated human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG-h) contains larger and more complex carbohydrate chains than regular human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG). hCG-h is thought to be the major form of hCG produced by testicular cancers and it has been suggested to play a key role in tumor invasion, but studies on hCG-h in testicular cancer are limited. We studied whether serum hCG is hy...