The uterine expression of leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) is essential for embryo implantation in the mouse. Here, we describe the expression of LIF, related members of this group of cytokines, oncostatin M and ciliary neurotrophic factor, and the LIF receptor beta and glycoprotein gp130 in normal human tissues and in the endometrium of fertile women. Our results show that LIF is the only one ...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the maturation and post-thaw survival rates of immature oocytes to determine whether in vitro maturation (IVM) should be attempted prior to or after cryopreservation. DESIGN Nonrandomized observational study. SETTING Private academic and clinical reproductive center. PATIENT(S) Patients (n = 71) who donated immature unusable oocytes after vaginal oocyte retrieval (VO...

The success rate of human in-vitro fertilization (IVF) remains low, with only approximately 10% of embryos transferred resulting in a term pregnancy. A major contributor to this embryonic loss is poor embryo development in vitro. Such poor development can be attributed to both chromosomal and anatomic anomalies in oocytes after ovarian stimulation and to suboptimal embryo culture conditions. Th...

In vitro maturation (IVM) is emerging as a popular technology at the forefront of fertility treatment and preservation. However, standard in vitro culture conditions usually increase reactive oxygen species (ROS), which have been implicated as one of the major causes for reduced embryonic developmental competence. It is well-known that higher than physiological levels of ROS triggers granulosa ...

Energy balance is regulated by ghrelin that is a neuroendocrine modulator. Ghrelin is expressed in reproductive organs. However, the role of ghrelin during in vitro maturation and bovine preimplantational development is limited. The purpose of this study was to determine the expression of ghrelin (GHRL) and its receptor growth hormone secretagogue receptor 1A (GHS-R1A) mRNA expression, and cumu...

The purpose of this study was to determine whether dithiothreitol (DTT) treatment of sperm and ethanol activation improve embryo production by intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). Further, we compared ICSI with standard in vitro fertilization (IVF) in oocytes obtained from cattle. We demonstrated that DTT reduced the disulfide bond in the bovine sperm head. Using oocytes obtained from a sla...

the aim of this study was to determine the quality of cumulus-oocyte-complexes (cocs) and the effects of bovine serum albumin (bsa) supplementation on in vitro maturation and fertilization rate of buffalo oocytes. cocs were collected from slaughterhouse buffalo ovaries by aspiration method. only normal grades cocs were matured for 48 hours in tcm-199 media. two groups were created: one for the ...

background:   objective: the objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of rabbit antiserum to es cells on mouse preimplantation embryo development and chimera production.   materials and methods: mouse 4-cell embryos were matured in vitro at 37.5 o c, in humidified 5% co 2 atmosphere for 12-36 h. the embryos were cultured in ksom medium with or without antiserum for 12-36 h. the ratios...

The present study was designed to evaluate the effect of activin-A during the in vitro oocyte maturation (IVM) and in vitro embryo culture (IVC) on nuclear maturation, blastocyst yield and blastocyst quality of prepubertal goat oocytes. In Experiment 1, three groups of oocytes were used during the IVM of prepubertal goat oocytes to determine the optimal concentration of recombinant human activi...

Since 1978 in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedures have resulted in the birth of over 3 million babies. Yet in 2005, IVF procedures had a live birth rate of only 34%, with 32% of these births resulting in multiple pregnancies. These multiple pregnancies were directly attributed to the transfer of multiple embryos to increase the probability that a single, healthy embryo was included. The predom...