Xenopus oocyte maturation is an example of an all-or-none, irreversible cell fate induction process. In response to a submaximal concentration of the steroid hormone progesterone, a given oocyte may either mature or not mature, but it can exist in intermediate states only transiently. Moreover, once an oocyte has matured, it will remain arrested in the mature state even after the progesterone i...

Follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH) are commonly added to maturation media to improve cumulus expansion known to be a predictor of oocyte maturation. Therefore, effects of various concentrations of FSH (1000 ng/ml), LH (1000 ng/ml) and FSH + LH (1000 ng/ml each) in comparison with control (without FSH + LH) cultured oocytes were investigated. FSH and LH (1000 ng/ml e...

Increased glucocorticoid levels, due to medical therapy or stress-related, may affect reproduction via the hypothalamus-pituitary-axis or directly at the oocyte level. We examined the effects of natural (corticosterone) or synthetic (dexamethasone) glucocorticoids on mouse oocyte maturation and underlying changes in extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) phosphorylation patterns. Fertiliza...

U-cadherin is a member of the cadherin family in Xenopus that participates in interblastomere adhesion in the early embryo from the first cleavage onwards. Though a maternal pool of U-cadherin is available in the egg, it is not present on the egg membrane (Angres et al., 1991. Development 111, 829-844). To assess the origin of this unexpected distribution in the egg, the accumulation and locali...

We have investigated the role of gap junctions in Caenorhabditis elegans oocyte maturation and fertilization. Gap junctions are observed between oocytes and the surrounding ovarian sheath cells in wild-type gonads. The sheath transcription factor CEH-18 is required to negatively regulate oocyte maturation, mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) activation, and ovulation. Transmission electron ...

During meiotic maturation, the cortical cytokeratin filament system of the Xenopus oocyte disappears (Klymkowsky, M. W., and L. A. Maynell. 1989. Dev. Biol. 134:479). Here we demonstrate that this disappearance results from the severing of cytokeratin filaments into a heterogenous population of oligomers, with S- values ranging from 12S and greater. Cytokeratin filament severing correlates with...

Abstract Background The developmental competence of oocyte derived from in vitro maturation (IVM) is significantly lower than those matured vivo. Rapamycin an immunosuppressive substance and widely used to prolong the survival preserve cells culture. objective this research was explore whether rapamycin supplementation during IVM enhances meiotic maturation, quality, subsequent embryonic develo...

background & aim: considering that antioxidants are known as effective free radicals scavenger, it may be able to improve the in vitro oocyte maturation and the fetal quality. this study was designed to determine the effect of gundelia tournefortii leaves (gte) hydro-alcoholic extract as a source of antioxidant on in vitro oocyte maturation. experimental: germinal vasicle (gv) were recovere...

Mitochondria provide the primary source of ATP in the oocyte and early embryo and mitochondrial dysfunction and deficit of mitochondria-derived ATP has been linked to suboptimal developmental competence. We have undertaken a study of ATP in the maturing mouse oocyte using a novel recombinant FRET based probe, AT1.03. We show that AT1.03 can be successfully used to monitor cytosolic ATP levels i...