The knowledge about ovarian reserve is essential to determine the reproductive potential and to improve the methods of fertility control for overpopulated species, such as white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus). The goal of this study was to evaluate the effect of age on the female reproductive tract of white-tailed deer, focusing on ovarian features. Genital tracts from 8 prepubertal and 1...

BACKGROUND One of the most major obstacles of ovarian tissue vitrification is suboptimal developmental competence of follicles. Matrix metalloproteinases 2 (MMP-2) and 9 (MMP-9) and their tissue inhibitors TIMP-1 and TIMP-2 are involved in the remodeling of the extracellular matrix in the ovaries. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to evaluate the expression of MMP-2, MMP-9, TIMP-1, and TIMP-2 genes ...

Mammalian oocytes grow within ovarian follicles in which the oocyte is coupled to surrounding granulosa cells by gap junctions. We report here that growing oocytes isolated from mouse preantral follicles are incapable of recovering from an experimentally induced acidosis, and that oocytes acquire the ability to manage acid loads by activating Na(+)/H(+) exchange during growth. By contrast, gran...

introduction: melatonin acts as an indirect antioxidant and is a powerful direct free radical scavenger and direct responses to melatonin in the gonads are detected. this study aims to investigate the influence of different doses of melatonin on preantral follicle development and oogenesis of in vitro cultured mouse ovarian follicles. materials and methods: preantral follicles with diameters of...

objective: the purpose of the present study was to verify the ultrastructural characteristics of cultured mouse preantral follicles from fresh and vitrified –warmed ovarian tissues. materials and methods: the ovaries of 14-day-old mice (n = 5) were vitrified using a mixture of ethylene glycol, ficoll 70 and sucrose. the preantral follicles were isolated and cultured in α-minimum essential mediu...

OBJECTIVE Improvements in cancer treatment have allowed more young women to survive. However, many cancer patients suffer from ovarian failure. Cryopreservation is one of the solutions for fertility restoration in these patients. The cryopreservation of isolated follicles is a more attractive approach in the long term. Many endocrine and paracrine factors can stimulate the granulosa cells of pr...

Conditioned media from single mouse ovarian follicles cultured from the early preantral stage up to complete maturity were analysed for different immunoreactive inhibin forms. The inhibin assays measured (i) alpha-specific inhibin, as represented by a mix of 32 and and 57 kDa inhibins, inhibin precursors, alpha-subunit and its precursors; (ii) dimeric inhibin A; and (iii) dimeric inhibin B. The...

Background: The fibroblast growth factors (FGF-4) are a group of heparin-binding single chain polypeptides that play a pivotal role in development, cell growth, tissue repairing and transformation. The aim of this study is to improve development and maturation outcome of vitrified mouse pre-antral follicle by adding of fibroblast growth factor (FGF) into medium culture. Materials and Methods: P...

OBJECTIVE To determine whether animal age impacts in vitro preantral follicle growth. Effects of hCG, stem cell factor (SCF), and/or insulin-like growth factor (IGF) supplementation in growth medium were also investigated. METHODS Intact preantral follicles were mechanically isolated from fresh ovaries of BDF1 mice and cultured in growth medium for 9 to 11 days. Surviving follicles with antru...