Follicle development is accompanied by proliferation of granulosa cells and increasing oocyte size. To obtain high-quality oocytes in vitro, it is important to understand the processes that occur in oocytes and granulosa cells during follicle development and the differences between in vivo and in vitro follicle development. In the present study, oocytes and granulosa cells were collected from e...

In the present study, we evaluated the contributions of antral follicle development and antral granulosa cell-released factor(s) to the acquisition of a mature mouse oocyte plasma membrane organization and cortical granule distribution. This has been performed by comparing in-vitro matured oocytes derived from early antral follicles (here referred to as denuded oocytes) or from pre-ovulatory fo...

Title of Thesis: DETERMINATION OF THE DYNAMICS OF FELINE FOLLICLE METABOLISM Jennifer L. Colvin, Master of Science, 2013 Thesis Directed By: Associate Professor Brian J. Bequette, Department of Animal and Avian Sciences The metabolism of feline follicles has been largely overlooked in reproductive science. The primary objective of this study was to determine differences in metabolite profiles a...

Background: Recent improvement in treatments of cancer has significantly increased survival rates of cancer patients. Unfortunately these treatments such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy can sever damage to the ovaries. Ovarian cryopreservation prior to chemo/ radiotherapy and auto-transplantation post-treatment can restore fertility to cancer patients. Hypoxia in the transplant from delayed re...

STUDY QUESTION Are urinary phthalate metabolites associated with reduced antral follicle growth among women in an infertility setting? SUMMARY ANSWER Higher urinary concentrations of di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) metabolites were associated with significant decreases in antral follicle count (AFC) among women seeking infertility care. WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY Experimental animal studies sh...

.......................................................................................... xiv Research Publications ................................................................... xviii Conference abstracts ..................................................................... xix Chapter 1: Introduction ..................................................................... 2 1.1 Folliculoge...

Introduction Reduction of ovarian reserve has been observed in childhood-onset SLE (c-SLE) and adult SLE populations, and most of them were limited to follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) levels and few recent reports included antral follicle count (AFC) and/or anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) levels. In addition, the contribution of diminished follicle ovarian pool using anti-corpus luteum antibodie...

Previous studies have reported many discrepancies about the best type and concentration of cryoprotective agents (CPAs) and biological variability among various pre-antral follicle classes after cryopreservation of ovarian tissue. The aim of this study was to investigate the impacts of some synthetic polymers on histological characteristics of different types of pre-antral follicles after bovin...

Studies in cattle assessing changes in number and size of antral follicles, concentrations of estradiol, androgens and progesterone in serum and follicular fluid, and numbers of gonadotropin receptors per follicle during repetitive estrous cycles and postpartum anestrus are reviewed. The rate of growth of small follicles (1 to 3 mm) into larger follicles increases as the estrous cycle progresse...

In vitro follicle growth is a potential approach to preserve fertility for young women who are facing a risk of premature ovarian failure (POF) caused by radiation or chemotherapy. Our two-step follicle culture strategy recapitulated the dynamic human follicle growth environment in vitro. Follicles developed from the preantral to antral stage, and, for the first time, produced meiotically compe...