The causes of embryonic arrest during pre-implantation development are poorly understood. Attempts to correlate patterns of oocyte gene expression with successful embryo development have been hampered by the lack of reliable and nondestructive predictors of viability at such an early stage. Here we report that zygote viscoelastic properties can predict blastocyst formation in humans and mice wi...

To investigate whether female fertility decreases with age due to poor oocyte quality, we examined the presence of DNA fragmentation in ovulated oocytes from young, mature and aged mice. Oocytes from three age groups of female mice (7-8, 20-24 and 40-48 weeks) were retrieved from the oviducts 15 h after human chorionic gonadotrophin (HCG) injection. Oocytes from each mouse were incubated in a C...

Caffeine, as an oocyte aging inhibitor, was used in many different species to control or delay oocyte aging. However, the safety of caffeine and developmental competence of aged oocytes inhibited by caffeine has not been studied systematically. So we detected the spindle morphology, distribution of cortical granules, zona pellucida hardening and pronucleus formation to assess oocyte quality of ...

Lipotoxicity is characterized by excessive saturated fatty acids in the blood, increasing storage in non-adipose cells, which leads to changes in the expression pattern of genes related to endoplasmic reticulum stress (e.g., ATF4, ATF6, CHOP, and GRP78), proand anti-apoptotic pathways (e.g., Bax and Bcl-2, and protein stability, including heat shock proteins, e.g., HSP70). A negative sub-cellul...

In the ovary, the paracrine interactions between the oocyte and surrounded granulosa cells are critical for optimal oocyte quality and embryonic development. Mice lacking the androgen receptor (AR⁻/⁻) were noted to have reduced fertility with abnormal ovarian function that might involve the promotion of preantral follicle growth and prevention of follicular atresia. However, the detailed mechan...

Assisted reproductive technologies in all mammals are critically dependent on the quality of the oocytes used to produce embryos. For reasons not fully clear, oocytes matured in vitro tend to be much less competent to become fertilized, advance to the blastocyst stage, and give rise to live young than their in vivo-produced counterparts, particularly if they are derived from immature females. H...