Background: In vitro maturation (IVM) is a promising treatment option for certain infertile women. Nowadays, with the aid of the Polscope, it has become possible to evaluate zona pellucida (ZP) and spindle as parameters of oocyte quality. The goal was to investigate the relationship between the presence of the meiotic spindle and ZP birefringence with morphology of the in vivo and in vitro matu...

Intracellular Ca(2+) oscillations at fertilization are responsible for triggering egg activation. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of the age of the oocyte donor and in-vitro maturation on the generation of Ca(2+) transients at fertilization. The results show that <10% of in-vivo and in-vitro matured oocytes from 19-day old mice develop to the blastocyst stage in vitro. In contra...

background: ammonium is produced in culture medium due to amino acids degradation and has adverse effect on in vitro culture of embryo. in the current study, the purpose was to evaluate the effects of ammuniom chloride (ac) on in vitro oocyte maturation rate and early embryo development in the sheep and its effect on the expression of bcl-2. methods: in vitro maturation (ivm) was performed in t...

Background: It is important to protect oocytes and embryos from oxidative stress in the culture medium. Melatonin has been shown to be a direct free radical scavenger. Therefore, effect of melatonin during in vitro oocyte maturation (IVM), fertilization and embryo development of mouse oocytes was evaluated. Materials and Methods: Oocytes from supper-ovulated mouse were divided to two groups: cu...

Objective: The role of growth factors, including vascular endothelial growth factor of activated omentum on mitosis is clearly known, though not on all the aspects of in vitro oocyte maturation. This study was designed to assess the effect of activated-omental extract (AOE) on in vitro maturation (IVM) of rat cumulus-oocyte complexes (COCs). Materials and Methods: In this experimental study, th...