Xenopus laevis oocytes were microinjected with low molecular weight phosphoesters such as 2-glycerophosphate, phosphotyrosine, phosphoserine, phosphothreonine, 4-nitrophenyl phosphate, and orthophosphate. These compounds were able to induce a considerable reduction in the time course of progesterone-induced maturation, with 2-glycerophosphate being the most effective. The basal level of cAMP an...

The addition of alpha-amanitin to extrafollicular, cumulus-enclosed ovine oocytes at explantation inhibits meiotic maturation and prevents many of the changes in protein synthesis that normally accompany maturation. By contrast, these inhibitory effects are considerably reduced by either delaying the addition of the drug for 1-4 h or by denuding the oocytes of all associated cumulus cells at th...

Background: It is important to protect oocytes and embryos from oxidative stress in the culture medium. Melatonin has been shown to be a direct free radical scavenger. Therefore, effect of melatonin during in vitro oocyte maturation (IVM), fertilization and embryo development of mouse oocytes was evaluated. Materials and Methods: Oocytes from supper-ovulated mouse were divided to two groups: cu...

in traditional medicine, mentha spicata is widely used for many diseases, especially in  digestive system. it has anti-androgenic effects thus can be used by women experiencing polycystic ovary syndrome (pcos). also, it has shown to possess antioxidant properties. although beneficial, studies have shown its detrimental effect on some tissues. the present study was carried out to determine the e...

One advantage of the asynchronous and distributed character of embodied evolution is that it can be executed on real robots without external supervision. Further, evolutionary progress can be measured in real time instead of in generation based evaluation cycles. By combining embodied evolution with lifetime learning, we investigated a largely neglected aspect with respect to the common assumpt...

Background: Dendritic cells (DC) induce tumor or pathogen-specific T cell responses in humans. Several laboratories have developed culture systems, including maturation factors for human DC from peripheral blood monocytes. We comprehensively compared standard maturation stimulus, an autologous monocyte-conditioned medium (MCM), with heparin for their ability to promote uniformly mature DC that ...

the aim of this study was to compare the effect of time of parthenogenetic activation (22 hr versus 27 hr after in vitro maturation-ivm) on in vitro development of ovine oocytes using either single (ionomycin 5 ?m for 5 min or ethanol 7% for 7 min) or combined (ionomycin and ethanol with 6-dmap 2 mm for 3 hr) activation treatments. the abattoir-derived in vitro matured activated oocytes were cu...