Background: Somatic cell nuclear transfer, commonly known as cloning is a powerful tool for the production of identical animals for productive, biomedical or conservation purposes. Today several species of mammals has been cloned using this technology. Nevertheless, the efficiency of the process is still low in terms of newborn animals. The causes for such inefficiencies are mainly the lack of ...

The present study was done to uncover the possible beneficial and/or detrimental effect(s) of nano-micelle curcumin (NMC) on oocyte in-vitro maturation and pre-implantation embryo development. Forty-eight mature female Wistar rats were assigned to control, 7.5, 15, and 30 mg/kg-1 NMC-receiving (orally, for 48 days) groups. To assess the cumulus-oocyte complexes (COCs), the ovaries were stimulat...

OBJECTIVES To evaluated the effects of melatonin on early embryo competence and the expression rate of the primary implantation receptors (ErbB1 and ErbB4). MATERIALS AND METHODS Two-cell mouse embryos were cultured in 3 groups: simple media, melatonin-treated (10-9 M melatonin) and Luzindole-treated (10-9 M luzindole). Then, the rate of ErbB1 and ErbB4 gene and protein expression, the level ...

Background: The mitochondria are an important source of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) production in pre-implantation embryo. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate the effect of vitrification and in vitro culture of mouse embryos on their mitochondrial distribution and ATP content. Methods: The embryos at 2-PN, 4-cell and blastocyst stages were collected from the oviduct of st...

Background: Genetic analysis in mice has lead to find about maternal effect genes such as Filia. Filia knock out mice have a 50% decrease in fertility. Filia dysfunction causes disorders in pre-implantation development. Mutations in human Filia gene, cause FBHM (Familial Biparental Hydatidiform Mole) in women. Filia protein in mice is homologous to that of rat and human, so this idea has emerge...

The present study was done to uncover the possible beneficial and/or detrimental effect(s) of nano-micelle curcumin (NMC) on oocyte in-vitro maturation and pre-implantation embryo development. Forty-eight mature female Wistar rats were assigned to control, 7.5, 15, and 30 mg/kg-1 NMC-receiving (orally, for 48 days) groups. To assess the cumulus-oocyte complexes (COCs), the ovaries were stimulat...

In the last 30 years, genetic testing techniques have been developed to identify chromosomally normal embryos in vitro, thereby potentially increasing the proportion of successful cycles with elective single-embryo transfer, and minimizing twin-pregnancy complications and miscarriages. This testing is termed "pre-implantation genetic screening" (PGS), in contrast to preimplantation genetic diag...

Microfluidics holds great potential for the field of assisted reproduction techniques (ART), to provide integrated platforms for combined embryo culture and characterization. The development of mouse embryos is not impaired in a microfluidic format: it proceeds faster during the pre-implantation period (< day 4), and gives similar birth rates. More importantly, single embryo culture is enhanced...

Assisted reproduction technologies have made great progress during the last 15 years in most mammalian species, including humans. Growing evidence indicates that bovine pre-implantation development is a superior model for investigating early human development than the mouse. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of two basic culture systems [tissue culture medium (TCM) with 5...

Functional assay limitations are an emerging issue in characterizing human pluripotent stem cells (PSCs). With rodent PSCs, chimera formation using pre-implantation embryos is the gold-standard assay of pluripotency (competence of progeny to differentiate into all three germ layers). In human PSCs (hPSCs), however, this can only be monitored via teratoma formation or in vitro differentiation, a...