Embyo

Activation of Map kinase/Erk signalling downstream of fibroblast growth factor (Fgf) tyrosine kinase receptors regulates gene expression required for mesoderm induction and patterning of the anteroposterior axis during Xenopus development. We have proposed that a subset of Fgf target genes are activated in the embyo in response to inhibition of a transcriptional repressor. Here we investigate the hypothesis that Cic (Capicua), which was originally identified as a transcriptional repressor negatively regulated by receptor tyrosine kinase/Erk signalling in Drosophila, is involved in regulating Fgf target gene expression in Xenopus...

Pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide (PACAP) is a neuropeptide with widespread occurrence and diverse functions. It occurs in high levels in the gonads suggesting a potential central role in reproduction. The aim of our study was to assess the effect of PACAP treatment during embryo vitrification on the developmental rate and the expression of the heparin-binding EGF-like growth factor gene (Hbegf). Mouse embryos, obtained from superovulated females were allocated into the four treatment groups...

BACKGROUND: The most appropriate diagnostic tests for the assessment of the uterine cavity in patients undergoing standard infertility evaluation in daily practice remain unclear. Routine hysteroscopic uterine cavity evaluation before an in vitro fertilization-embyo transfer (IVF-ET) cycle is not a uniformly accepted procedure. However, cervical findings associated with difficult ET have rarely been reported in previous hysteroscopic studies. The main objective of this study was to examine the relationship between cervical finding under flexible outpatient hysteroscopy (OH) and difficult ET...

BACKGROUND: Placentation has evolved multiple times among both chordates and invertebrates. Although they are structurally less complex, invertebrate placentae are much more diverse in their origin, development and position. Aquatic colonial suspension-feeders from the phylum Bryozoa acquired placental analogues multiple times, representing an outstanding example of their structural diversity and evolution. Among them, the clade Cyclostomata is the only one in which placentation is associated with viviparity and polyembryony-a unique combination not present in any other invertebrate group...

PURPOSE: Balanced carriers of structural rearrangements have an increased risk of unbalanced embryos mainly due to the production of unbalanced gametes during meiosis. Aneuploidy for other chromosomes not involved in the rearrangements has also been described. The purpose of this work is to know if the incidence of unbalanced embryos, interchromosomal effect (ICE) and clinical outcomes differ in carriers of different structural rearrangements. METHODS: Cohort retrospective study including 359 preimplantation genetic testing cycles for structural rearrangements from 304 couples was performed...

TTechniques that allow single cell analysis are gaining widespread attention and most of these studies utilize genomics-based approaches. While nanofluidic technologies have enabled mass spectrometric analysis of single cells, these measurements have been limited to metabolomics and lipidomic studies. Single cell proteomics has the potential to improve our understanding of intercellular heterogeneity. However, this approach has faced challenges including limited sample availability, as well as a re-quirement of highly sensitive methods for sample collection, clean-up and detection...

The increased resistances to conventional antibiotics determine a strong need for new antibacterials, and specific syntheses at the nanoscale promise to be helpful in this field. A novel Zinc-doped Copper oxide nanocomposite (nZn-CuO) has been recently sonochemically synthesized and successfully tested also against multi-drug resistant bacteria. After synthesis and characterization of the physicochemical properties, the new nZn-CuO is here evaluated by the Frog Embyo Teratogenesis Assay-Xenopus test for its toxicological potential and this compared with that of nCuO and nZnO synthesized under the same conditions...

Elucidating the origin of germ cells in embryos and larvae is often obscured by the fact that the typical germ cell markers vasa, nanos and piwi are not exclusively expressed in primordial germ cells (PGCs), but are also commonly found in undifferentiated somatic tissues and stem cells as part of an evolutionary conserved 'germline multipotency program' (Juliano et al., 2010). Hidden in the crowd of undifferentiated cells, the PGCs have occasionally been overlooked and their formation during early embryogenesis was only revealed recently by new methodological approaches (e...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Little is known about morphological (MD) or morphophysiological (MPD) dormancy in cold desert species and in particular those in Liliaceae sensu lato, an important floristic element in the cold deserts of Central Asia with underdeveloped embyos. The primary aim of this study was to determine if seeds of the cold desert liliaceous perennial ephemeral Eremurus anisopterus has MD or MPD, and, if it is MPD, then at what level. METHODS: Embryo growth and germination was monitored in seeds subjected to natural and simulated natural temperature regimes and the effects of after-ripening and GA3 on dormancy break were tested...

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of progesterone supplementation during the luteal phase on pregnancy outcome in natural frozen-thawed embyo transfer (FTET) cycles. METHODS: In this retrospective cohort study, 228 consecutive patients who underwent FTET cycles between January 2009 and September 2012 were included. One hundred forty-five patients received luteal progesterone support (P group) but 83 patients did not receive any progesterone supplementation during luteal phase (control group)...

BACKGROUND: Genetic mosaic techniques have been used to visualize and/or genetically modify a neuronal subpopulation within complex neural circuits in various animals. Neural populations available for mosaic analysis, however, are limited in the vertebrate brain. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: To establish methodology to genetically manipulate neural circuits in medaka, we first created two transgenic (Tg) medaka lines, Tg (HSP:Cre) and Tg (HuC:loxP-DsRed-loxP-GFP)...

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to evaluate the efficacy of a treatment with myo-inositol plus folic acid plus melatonin compared with myo-inositol plus folic acid alone on oocyte quality in women underwent in vitro fertilization (IVF) cycles. DESIGN: A prospective, clinical trial. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Starting on the day of GnRH administration, 65 women undergoing IVF cycles were randomized in two groups to receive myo-inositol plus folic acid plus melatonin (32 women, group A), and myo-inositol plus folic acid (33 women, group B), administered continuously...

Among young women, the incidence of uterine corpus cancer is increasing. Most young women can not preserve fertility because simple total hysterectomy with bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy is the standard method for early endometrial cancer so far. We present a case of early endometrial adenocarcinoma which succeeded in pregnancy and delivery after resectoscopic surgery. Following a circumferential resection of the lesion including the mucosa and muscle layer under resectoscopic guidance, the patient became pregnant by means of in vitro fertilization-embyo transfer with hormone replenishment...

Sphere-forming abilities in culture condition are considered a hallmark of cancer stem-like cells, which represents tumor cell invasiveness and stem-like characteristics. We aimed to show that the sphere-forming subpopulation of human malignant melanoma cell line WM-266-4 acts differently to zebrafish embryo extracts compared with their bulk counterpart. Spheres were maintained in neural stem cell culture conditions. The embryos of zebrafish at specific developmental stages were collected and the extracts were purified under 100 kDa...

Malachite green (MG) is a triphenyl methane dye used in various fields that demonstrates high toxicity to bacteria and mammalian cells. When bud stage zebrafish embryos were treated with MG at 125, 150, and 175ppb for 14h, the development of trunk including intersomitic vessels was inhibited in MG-treated flk-1-GFP transgenic embyos. MG clearly induced whole growth retardation. MG induced severe cell death in trunk intersomite region of zebrafish embryos and in human vascular endothelial cells in a dose-dependent manner...

3,3',4,4',5-Pentachlorinated biphenyls 126 (PCB126) is a global environmental contaminant that can induce cellular oxidative stress. We investigated whether vitamin E can protect against toxicity from PCB126 during zebrafish (Danio rerio) development. Zebrafish embryos were exposed to 100nM PCB126 and compared with a second group that was co-exposed with 100muM vitamin E until 5 days post fertilization. PCB126 induced pericardial sac edema, yolk sac edema, and growth retardation in zebrafish embyos. In contrast, vitamin E co-exposure group did not show any gross changes...

The pro-apoptotic caspase-3 gene has been shown to have key functions in the execution of apoptosis (programmed cell death) in vertebrate cells. However, the central role of caspase-3 in morphogenesis during development remains unclear. In this study, transgenic zebrafish that overexpress full-length pro-caspase-3 were generated to determine the effects of caspase genes on vertebrate morphogenesis and stress tolerance. The enhanced expression of the full-length pro-caspase-3 cDNA induced extremely high levels of caspase activity and extensive apoptosis in the transgenic embryos, and 33-46% of F2 embyos in the transgenic lines exhibited some form of morphological abnormality...

1Escherichia coli gene nfsB encodes a nitroreductase (NTR) enzyme that converts prodrugs like metronidazole (Met) and CB 1954 to cytotoxic metabolites. My coworkers and I have validated this prodrug-enzyme system in zebrafish (Danio rerio) by ubiquitously expressing NTR-EGFP fusion protein and exposing these embyos to CB 1954 and Met. These embryos showed extensive gross pathologic changes and death by 24 h of incubation in the prodrugs. They also exhibited widespread and marked apoptotic changes by 8 h of incubation in Met...

The objective of the present study was to test the ability of porcine follicular fluid (pFF) to improve maturation of porcine cumulus-oocyte-complexes (COC) in vitro and to observe subsequent effects on fertilization and development to late morula/blastocyst stages under in vitro conditions. The COC were incubated in Tissue Culture Medium (TCM) 199, supplemented with 1% fetal calf serum (FCS), 10% pFF collected from immature follicles (2 to 5 mm), with or without addition of 1microg/ml FSH. Control groups were matured in TCM 199 with or without FSH...

The male:female ratio of developing bovine embryos produced and allowed to develop in vitro and in vivo was determined retrospectively from the cytogenetic analysis of 804 embyos. The overall male:female ratio of the 307 (38%) embryos that could be sexed was 162 (52.8%):145 (47.2%) and did not differ (P>0.05) from the expected 1:1 ratio. Among premorula stage embryos produced in vivo (n = 66) and in vitro (n = 30), the ratios were 1.2:1 and 0.76:1, respectively. Among morulae and blastocysts produced in vivo (n = 74), produced and cultured in vitro (n = 106, and produced in vitro and cultured in vivo (n = 31), the ratios were 1...