Mammalian ovaries are endowed with a huge number of small oocytes in primordial follicles (primordial oocytes). The mechanism regulating initiation of oocyte growth and follicular development is not well understood. Several growth factors and cytokines are known to be involved in oocyte growth and follicular development. Herein, the involvement of KIT, a receptor tyrosine kinase, and its ligand...

Children’s exposure to high-LET α-radionuclides is dominated by that from natural sources. If we consider the dose to bone marrow in childhood and the in utero dose to haemopoietic tissue, the important short-lived radionuclides of interest are those derived from radon and its immediate decay products (figure 1). For the long-lived α-radionuclides, Po and Ra are by far the most important, the f...

We investigated the accumulation of radionuclides in frogs inhabiting radioactively contaminated areas around Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP) to search for possible adverse effects due to radionuclides. We collected 5 frog species and soil samples in areas within and outside a 20-km radius from FDNPP in August and September 2012 and determined their radiocesium concentrations ((13...

Progress Report: RESEARCH OBJECTIVE This project serves to fill information gap through the development of a novel surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectroscopy to selectively and sensitively monitor and characterize the chemical speciation of radionuclides at trace levels. The SERS technique permits both of these measurements to be made simultaneously, and results in significant improv...

Topicality of the ionizing radiation impact on organisms is conditioned by Nuclear Power Plants (NPP), releasing of various technogenic radionuclides into the environment during the operational period in different in different way. Chronic exposure of low doses of ionizing radiation to biota is an invisible, however, inevitable factor of the environment (Lu et al., 2006; Geras’kin et al., 2007;...

Primordial follicle assembly is a process that occurs when oocyte nests break down to form individual primordial follicles. The size of this initial pool of primordial follicles in part determines the reproductive lifespan of the female. Connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) was identified as a potential regulatory candidate for this process in a previous microarray analysis of follicle develo...

The assembly of the primordial follicles early in ovarian development and the subsequent development and transition of the primordial follicle to the primary follicle are critical processes in ovarian biology. These processes directly affect the number of oocytes available to a female throughout her reproductive life. Once the pool of primordial follicles is depleted a series of physiological c...

The primordial follicle assembly, activation and the subsequent development are critical processes for female reproduction. A limited number of primordial follicles are activated to enter the growing follicle pool each wave, and the primordial follicle pool progressively diminishes over a woman's life-time. The number of remaining primordial follicles represents the ovarian reserve. Identificat...

At present the Baltic Sea is considered to be the most contaminated with anthropogenic radionuclides in comparison to any other part of the World Ocean. Anthropogenic radionuclides (mainly 137 Cs and 90 Sr) found in the seawater are sources of the external exposure that contributes to the total radiation exposure to humans. The variations of activity concentrations of 137 Cs and 90 Sr in the wa...

The specific activities of the natural radionuclides U, Ra, Th and K were measured in sediments and water samples collected from the Qarun lake (Middle Egypt) in order to gather information about radionuclides mobility and distribution. In the sediment and water in general, the concentration of U was found to be higher than that of the Th and the activities of Th, Ra and U in this lake falls wi...