The ability of bovine follicular fluid (FF) and oviduct fluid (ODF) to capacitate sperm was determined. At concentrations of greater than 20%, both FF and ODF capacitated sperm within 4 hours, but at concentrations greater than 40%, FF also initiated the acrosome reaction. Non-luteal ODF at a concentration greater than 60% capacitated sperm within 2 hours. Non-luteal ODF maintained sperm motili...

OBJECTIVES The study was conducted to assess the autonomic status of women with mild PMS using short-term heart rate variability (HRV) analysis and conventional autonomic function tests (CAFT). METHODS Sixty females in the age group 17-25 years with mild premenstrual syndrome were identified using a self-report questionnaire, the shortened premenstrual assessment form. HRV and CAFTs were reco...

Luteal cells express class II major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecules and can stimulate T lymphocyte proliferation in vitro. However, it is unknown whether luteal cells express the intracellular components necessary to process the peptides presented by class II MHC molecules. The objective of the present study was to examine the expression and regulation of three major class II-associa...

The apoptosis of granulosa cells is involved in follicular atresia and degeneration of the corpus luteum. The mechanisms that regulate follicular atresia and luteal degeneration remain obscure. Survivin is a member of the family of inhibitors of apoptosis protein that is expressed during fetal development and in cancer tissues. The present study investigates the expression of survivin, as well ...

A single low dose administration of a high affinity anti-progestin agent like mifepristone during the early luteal phase inhibits blastocyst implantation in human and non-human primates. Though it has been observed that luteal phase serum concentrations of estradiol and progesterone were not affected by the application of anti-nidatory dose of early luteal phase mifepristone suggesting that ova...

Ethylene glycol monomethyl ether (EGME) and its proximate metabolite, 2-methoxyacetic acid (MAA), increase ovarian luteal cell progesterone production in the female rat in vivo and in cultured rat luteal cells in vitro, respectively. In order to better assess the potential hazard of EGME and MAA to women, these studies were conducted to determine whether the same concentrations of MAA increase ...