Background: Infertility is defined as inability to achive pregnancy after one year of unprotected regular intercourse.it has been reported that about 10-15% of young couples suffer from infertility. There is evidence that antioxidants improve the fertility rate. Prunus cerasus contains strong antioxidant activity. The aim of this study is to evaluate Prunus cerasus effects on expression of prog...

We sought to investigate whether miR-378 plays a role in cumulus cells and whether the manipulation of miRNA levels in cumulus cells influences oocyte maturation in vitro. Cumulus-oocyte complexes (COCs) from ovarian follicles had significantly lower levels of precursor and mature miR-378 in cumulus cells surrounding metaphase II (MII) oocytes than cumulus cells surrounding germinal vesicle (GV...

BACKGROUND GJA1 and PTX3 were proposed as gene markers for oocyte and embryo developmental competence, while SERPINE2 was reported to be associated with pregnancy outcome. PRSS35, which is exclusively expressed in the ovary, may be correlated with oocyte competence. This study was conducted to evaluate the correlation of cumulus GJA1, PRSS35, PTX3, and SERPINE2 gene expression levels with oocyt...

This study tested the hypothesis that oocyte-derived paracrine factors (ODPFs) regulate miRNA expression in mouse granulosa cells. Expression of mmu-miR-322-5p (miR-322) was higher in mural granulosa cells (MGCs) than in cumulus cells of the Graafian follicles. The expression levels of miR-322 decreased when cumulus cells or MGCs were co-cultured with oocytes denuded of their cumulus cells. Inh...

The serpin peptidase inhibitor, clade E, member 2 (SERPINE2) inhibits urokinase-type plasminogen activator (PLAU) and tissue-type plasminogen activator. Higher SERPINE2 expression levels were detected in cumulus cells of human immature oocytes than in those of mature oocytes. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether high SERPINE2 levels in cumulus cells are associated with oocyte imm...

During mammalian oocyte growth, genomic DNA may accumulate DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) induced by factors such as reactive oxygen species. Recent evidence demonstrated that slight DSBs do not activate DNA damage checkpoint proteins in denuded oocytes. These oocytes, even with DNA DSBs, can resume meiosis and progress to metaphase of meiosis II. Meiotic resumption in oocytes is also controll...

The present study aimed to investigate progesterone receptor (PR) gene expression in cumulus cells and their roles during meiotic resumption of porcine oocytes. The amount of PR-A or PR-B mRNA was analyzed by RT-PCR using primer sets for the PR-B region or the PR-A/B common region. The level of PR-B mRNA in cumulus cells was up-regulated by FSH and LH during the first 8 h of cultivation but the...

BACKGROUND Bone morphogenetic protein-15 (BMP15) is a maternal gene necessary for mammalian reproduction. BMP15 expression increased in oocytes accompanied by follicle growth and development. The function and regulation mechanism of BMP15 in porcine cumulus cell apoptosis process is still unclear now. METHODS In this study, flow cytometry (FCM) was used to analyze the effects of BMP15 with di...

We examined the relationship between integrity of cumulus cells and nuclear maturation rate after in vitro culture to determine a non-invasive prediction of the maturational competence of feline oocytes. Feline cumulus-oocyte complexes (COCs) were collected from either small (400-800 μm) or large (≥800 μm) follicles. Immediately after collection, cumulus cells were evaluated morphologically (th...