Background: This study was set up to evaluate the effect of ovarian tissue slow freezing on in vitro growth and pattern of maturation genes expression in mouse preantral follicles encapsulated within alginate hydrogel. Materials and Methods: Ovaries of 12-14 days old female NMRI mice were randomly allocated into control and slow freezing groups. In slow freezing group, ovaries were equilibrated...

Studies were conducted to characterize the chicken ovarian LH receptor (cLH-R) cDNA and to evaluate expression of cLH-R mRNA in follicles at different stages of development. A total of 1.89 kb of nucleic acid sequence corresponding to the cLH-R (1.79 kb of the predicted coding region) was isolated by a combination of reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and cDNA library screening tec...

The developmental competence of bovine oocytes isolated from antral follicles of different sizes was assessed in three European laboratories (Belgium, UCL; Denmark, DIAS; France, INRA). Using the same protocol for in vitro production of embryos, the oocytes isolated from follicles with a diameter > or = 6 mm always gave a higher blastocyst rate than oocytes from follicles < 4 mm (UCL: 42% versu...

The ovary contains a pool of primordial follicles containing oocytes arrested in meiosis that are the source of developing follicles for the female. Growth and differentiation factor-9 (GDF-9) is a member of the transforming growth factor beta superfamily of growth factors, and follicles of GDF-9 knockout mice arrest in the primary stage of development. The effect of GDF-9 treatment on the prim...

Background: Cryopreservation of ovaries is an important technique in assisted reproduction technology. Physical forces like hydrostatic pressure have a pivotal role in reproduction systems. Due to changes in intrafollicular pressure during ovulatory process, this study designed to examine the effects of hydrostatic pressure on oocyte maturation and cell death in cumulus cells from cryopreserved...

Background This research was conducted to assess preantral follicle development in fibrin alginate matrix following ovarian tissue vitrification MaterialsAndMethods Ovaries of 13-day-old NMRI female mice were removed and placed in control and vitrification groups. Vitrification group ovaries were transferred in media containing ethylene glycol, dimethyl sulphoxide, and sucrose then were plunged...

A new level of understanding of pigment cell biology and pathology will require the ability to culture and manipulate melanocyte stem cells (MCSCs) in vitro. In this issue, Nishikawa-Torikai et al. report progress toward this end. MCSCs isolated from mouse hair follicles can be expanded in vitro in a feeder-layer culture system. Application to human systems can be expected.

BACKGROUND Cryopreservation of preantral follicles or ovarian tissues would enable the storage of large numbers of primordial follicles or preantral follicles and preserves the structural integrity of somatic and reproductive cells. In the present study, we compared the developmental potential of cryopreserved two-week-old mouse preantral follicles, ovarian tissue slices, two-week-old mouse ova...

Cryopreservation of ovarian cortex has important implications in the preservation of fertility and biodiversity in animal species. Slow freezing of cat ovarian tissue resulted in the preservation of follicular morphology and in the follicular development after xenografting. Vitrification has been recently applied to ovarian tissues of different species, but no information is available on the ef...

This study was designed to investigate the effects of applying 1 mT static magnetic field (SMF) during the vitrification process, on the viability of ovarian follicles after vitrification-warming and autotransplantation. The study was conducted in two phases. In the first phase, ovaries of female NMRI mice (6 to 8 weeks old) were randomly divided into three groups: 1- Freshly isolated ovaries f...