Breakthrough Technology Takes Egg Freezing from Myth to Dependable Reality Oct 25, 2008
In simple terms, it means that for the first time, women in their prime childbearing years can freeze and bank their own eggs for future use, relatively confident that they will have a 26%-to-27% chance of a having a baby from each cryopreserved, genetically selected oocyte ... Those oocytes, when properly warmed, fertilized and transferred are as likely to yield offspring in five, 10 or even 20 years as they are today. (PR Newswire)
Gays fulfil parenting dream in India Oct 12, 2008
"From 2005 to 2007, 12 same-sex gay couples were treated with a total of 16 oocyte retrieval cycles," he told the audience, which included the creator of Dolly, the cloned sheep, Dr K H S Campbell. The 16 cycles were done using surrogate mothers. (India Times, India)
Rong Li Lab probes mechanism of asymmetry in meiotic cell division Oct 8, 2008
The Stowers Institute's Rong Li Lab has characterized a mechanism that allows for asymmetrical cell division during meiosis in oocytes. By tracking chromosome movement in live mouse oocytes, the team discovered that chromosomes can recruit to their vicinity a protein called formin-2 ... This protein allows the oocyte to retain the majority of the cytoplasm a requirement for embryonic development after fertilization while the other daughter cell (called a polar body) resulting from the... (EurekAlert!)
Cryopreservation: Saving Fertility, And Species Sep 11, 2008
Cryopreservation Techniques Bring Hopes For Women Cancer Victims And Endangered Species. Cryopreservation Techniques Bring Hopes For Women Cancer Victims And Endangered Species. (Science Daily)
First test-tube monkeys given birth in China Sep 11, 2008
Sun's team capitalized on a few new technologies on stimulating more eggs from female monkeys and collecting semen and mammalian oocyte, as well as new ways of in vitro fertilization and embryo transplantation. The new technologies "can significantly improve the pregnancy rate and live birth of healthy baby monkeys," the scientist said. (Xinhuanet, China)
Scientists Turn Skin Cells Into Motor Neurons in ALS Patients Aug 1, 2008
That process involves removing the genetic material from a donated human oocyte and replacing it with genetic material from the skin cells of patients. The approach has been hindered by political, ethical and other obstacles. (U.S. News & World Report)
Scientists Announce Mouse Sperm Cryopreservation Breakthrough Jul 31, 2008
When frozen sperm are needed for fertilization, they are thawed and incubated in in vitro fertilization media for an hour before adding oocyte cumulus masses (clusters of egg cells) ... 4, 2004) A team of reproductive biologists from the United States and Japan has succeeded in fertilizing rabbit oocytes with "dead" freeze-dried rabbit sperm. (Science Daily)
Is It Time to Give Up on Therapeutic Cloning? A Q&A with Ian Wilmut Jul 22, 2008
The strategy that we adopted was to use frog egg and oocyte extracts and to expose the nuclei from alien cells to those extracts and look for reprogramming. That seemed a very reasonable approach, because John Gurdon [a renowned British developmental biologist] showed 30 years ago that if you put mammalian nuclei into frog eggs, some of the mammalian nuclei are switched on. (Scientific American)
Advances in fertility science spawn new issues Jul 13, 2008
Although sperm and embryos have been successfully frozen for years, the process of freezing unfertilized human eggs for later use (called oocyte cryopreservation) has only been considered reliable for about two years, Kristiansen says, since technology has only recently been able to preserve the fragile cells without damage ... But patients and their physicians usually want to get cancer treatment started right away in order to increase survival chances, and chemotherapy and radiotherapy are... (Houston Business Journal, TX)
New Ovarian Stimulation Technique Offers More Cancer Patients The Chance To Preserve Their Fertility Jul 13, 2008
Therefore, if the cancer diagnosis is made at any other time in the cycle, a woman could wait up to six weeks before it would be possible to collect eggs (or oocytes) after ovarian stimulation ... Dr Michael von Wolff, vice-director of the Department of Gynaecological Endocrinology and Reproduction Medicine at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, told a conference news briefing: "Depending on what phase of her menstrual cycle a woman is in when she receives a cancer diagnosis, it can take... (Science Daily)
Renuka for strict law on surrogacy Jun 29, 2008
The draft warns that a surrogate mother should not act as an oocyte donor and clinics assisting in this would be breaking the law. The child's status and legal rights are equal to that of a biological child born to a couple. (India Times, India)
Human egg formation captured Jun 13, 2008
"The release of the oocyte from the ovary is a crucial event in human reproduction. These pictures are clearly important to better understand the mechanism," New Scientist magazine quoted Donnez as saying. . (Sify.com, India)
Fruit Fly Helps Identify Protein Critical To Eggshell Formation That May Be Pesticide Target Jun 4, 2008
"Think of the vitelline membrane as made up of four colors of brick and one of the colors falls into the oocyte. We don't know if there is any direct consequence of having that brick taken up by the oocyte: it could be just trash. But not having it in the eggshell means the vitelline membrane won't form properly, so the egg won't survive anyway," Dr. LeMosy says. Palisade could prove a great target for pesticides, which today are largely neurotoxins, because humans don't have it, says Dr.... (Science Daily)
Cooperative View: New Evidence Suggests A Symbiogenetic Origin For The Centrosome May 8, 2008
Centrosomal RNA Correlates with Intron-Poor Nuclear Genes in Spisula Oocytes ... enlarge Differential interference contrast image of an activated Spisula oocyte. (Science Daily)
New Treatment Could Double Pregnancy Rates With Assisted Reproductive Technology Apr 21, 2008
30, 2006) Researchers at the Yale Fertility Center are now offering a cutting edge reproductive procedure called oocyte cryopreservation that allows women to freeze their eggs and use them at a later time to. . (Science Daily)
Case of the disappearing dads Apr 10, 2008
In Australia and New Zealand in 2005, there were 21,420 assisted reproduction technology cycles in which an oocyte or embryo was transferred which involved ICSI - intracytoplasmic sperm injection ... In recent years, ICSI has outnumbered in-vitro fertilisation involving an oocyte or embryo transfer. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Australia)
Pacific Fertility Center Announces Breakthrough in Egg Freezing Technology Feb 22, 2008
SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- A Pacific Fertility Center (PFC) patient, who underwent an embryo transfer with embryos created from vitrified and warmed donor oocytes (eggs), successfully delivered a baby in late October 2007 ... PFC has been developing an oocyte vitrification program for the past two years ... In recent months, this vitrification technology has been used at PFC for oocyte preservation. (PR Newswire)
WORK & FAMILY Feb 14, 2008
Egg freezing, or "oocyte cryopreservation," entails taking drugs to stimulate ovulation, then having eggs extracted surgically, frozen and stored for in vitro fertilization. Human eggs are difficult to freeze without damaging them; only about 500 babies have been born from frozen eggs. (Wall Street Journal)
Significantly Higher Success Rates With Artificial Insemination Using New Ova Assessment Tool Feb 13, 2008
30, 2006) Researchers at the Yale Fertility Center are now offering a cutting edge reproductive procedure called oocyte cryopreservation that allows women to freeze their eggs and use them at a later time to. (Apr. (Science Daily)
Study Spots Gene That Plays Role in Infertility Feb 2, 2008
A woman's ovaries are made up of follicles, each of which contains an oocyte (the germ cell which will eventually give rise to an egg). Over time, the majority of follicles remain dormant, acting as holding pens for immature oocytes ... Menopause occurs when there are no more follicles and, therefore, no more oocytes left. (MEDLINEplus)
Cloned Human Embryo Created From Skin Cells Jan 23, 2008
Five blastocysts were developed from 25 donated mature oocytes. Three were confirmed to be clones based on DNA fingerprinting demonstrating the presence of the skin cell donor DNA in the blastocyst, while one was further confirmed to be a clone by an additional mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis which revealed the presence of oocyte donor mtDNA without any oocyte donor nuclear DNA. For technical reasons, the genetic material in the remaining two blastocysts did not amplify to the extent required... (Science Daily)
Factors Responsible For Restart Of Meiotic Cycle Identified Dec 7, 2007
The Stowers Institute's Hawley Lab has identified a pair of proteins that work in concert to restart the meiotic cycle of oocytes following a natural period of dormancy ... The Hawley Lab has described the dual actions of these two proteins as the "Sleeping Beauty Kiss" that awakens the long-dormant egg, allowing for production of a mature oocyte ready for fertilization ... The cells that will become oocytes in human females develop during fetal development and begin the actual process of... (Science Daily)
Stowers Institute's Hawley Lab identifies factors responsible for restart of meiotic cycle Dec 5, 2007
The Stowers Institutes Hawley Lab has identified a pair of proteins that work in concert to restart the meiotic cycle of oocytes following a natural period of dormancy. The Hawley Lab has described the dual actions of these two proteins as the Sleeping Beauty Kiss that awakens the long-dormant egg, allowing for production of a mature oocyte ready for fertilization ... The cells that will become oocytes in human females develop during fetal development and begin the actual process of meiosis... (EurekAlert!)
Oosight Microscope Enables Embryonic Stem Cell Breakthrough Dec 3, 2007
A reliable, noninvasive technique for spindle imaging and enucleation of mammalian oocytes ... Spindle: Visualization of the meiotic spindle in a rhesus monkey oocyte (egg) using the OosightTM spindle imaging system during enucleation. (Science Daily)
Reprogrammed Skin Cells Could Replace Embryonic Stem Cells Nov 27, 2007
" In the new study, Yu, Thomson and colleagues introduced four genetic factors, OCT4, SOX2, NANOG, and LIN28, into human fibroblast skin cells that are easy to harvest and grow in culture. Finding the set of genes that had the capacity to make the skin fibroblast transform into unidifferentiated stem cells helped overcome problems that exist ever since scientists created Dolly, the famous sheep that was cloned in the UK in 1996. Dolly was made by transferring an adult cell nucleus into an... (Medical News Today)
A Breakthrough on Stem Cells Nov 23, 2007
And since every scientific experiment just begets more experiments, Dolly's birth got researchers to wondering: If the egg can reprogram a cell, is it possible to tease out exactly what age-reversing factors the oocyte uses, and mix up a Fountain of Youth cocktail that would work on any cell without the need for an egg. Related Articles. (Time.com)
blog conversation Nov 22, 2007
The authors should show ask exactly how many oocytes are used (e. g. the number of corrected normal oocytes, number of lost oocytes by technical accidents etc ... The authors will also have to agree to outside testing, if requested, and should be required to store samples from both the somatic cell donor(s) and the oocyte donor(s). (Nature News Service)
Cloned monkey stem cells produced - Premium content Nov 22, 2007
e., the fibroblast cells obtained from a skin biopsy) can be reprogrammed by the oocyte such that an embryo is obtained ... The full term development of other species such as mice, sheep, goats, cows and pigs mice has been achieved through the transfer of somatic cell nuclei into enucleated oocytes. (Nature News Service)
Stem cells taken from cloned monkey embryos Nov 16, 2007
Oocyte donor - Oocyte harvested from female rhesus monkey. DNA removed from unfertilized oocyte. (Globe and Mail)
Stem cell breakthrough? Sep 29, 2007
The researchers talked to hundreds of Russian women who had gone through in-vitro fertilization to have children, and as a result had leftover eggs, or oocytes, frozen in storage at IVF clinics ... If the company's parthenogenetic cells can be used for a therapy, theoretically a woman's oocyte could be used to produce cornea tissue ... Or, cornea tissue can be developed from a donor oocyte and statistically, at least, it would pose fewer rejection issues than tissue that comes from a fertilized... (San Diego Union-Tribune -- Business)
Ovarian Tissue Transplantation Works Despite Genetic Differences Aug 5, 2007
"Our findings offer hope to young patients facing premature ovarian failure, who have not had the chance to cryopreserve their oocytes, embryos or ovarian cortex," Dr. Donnez said ... Furthermore, "her sister expressly asked to be the tissue donor and refused to undergo ovarian stimulation for oocyte donation," he noted. (MedPage Today)
Ovary Transplant Between Sisters Produces Embryos Aug 5, 2007
Eleven months after the transplant, the scientists detected two follicles which they pierced and from which they retrieved two mature eggs, or oocytes as they are called ... Donnez and colleagues concluded that as a result of "allotransplantation of fresh ovarian tissue" by laparoscopy between "two genetically non-identical sisters", they were able to restore ovarian function after six months, and demonstrate "oocyte retrieval and embryo development". (Medical News Today)
Bone Marrow Restores Fertility In Female Mice, Study Confirms Aug 4, 2007
While donor-derived egg cells or oocytes were observed in the ovaries of marrow recipients, all pups born were from the recipients' own eggs. "Consistent with our past work, cells derived from the donor bone marrow are getting into the ovaries and developing into immature oocytes," says Jonathan Tilly, PhD, director of the Vincent Center for Reproductive Biology at MGH, the study's senior author ... "Although these oocytes derived from marrow cells don't appear competent, at least thus far, to... (Science Daily)
Geneticist new State Dept. advisor Aug 2, 2007
Norman Neureiter N.V. Fedoroff and D.D. Brown, "The nucleotide sequence of oocyte 5S DNA in Xenopus laevis. I. The AT-rich spacer," Cell, April 1978. Anon. (The Scientist)
Sisters in historic ovarian tissue swap Aug 2, 2007
Professor Donnez said: "Having already provided bone marrow in 1990, her sister (Sandra), who was now aged 32 and had never become pregnant, badly wanted to help her sister by donating some of her own ovarian tissue. "Although the option of oocyte donation from the sister to the patient was discussed, the patient refused this option. She preferred a transplant because she wanted to be responsible' for the follicular maturation and considered that it was more natural than egg donation. (The Herald)
Bone marrow transplant can help restore fertility - Study Aug 2, 2007
To further investigate this observation researchers gave chemotherapy-treated females, marrow from transgenic females that expressed a green fluorescent protein (GFP) marker only on germline cells, which were precursor cells involved in producing oocytes. Researchers confirmed that no immune cells from the germline-only GFP strain contained the marker protein, making it highly unlikely that GFP-labelled cells in the ovaries of females receiving germline-only-labeled marrow were anything other... (South Asian Women's Forum)
High-tech egg hunt in race to save the rhino Jul 28, 2007
2 millimetres, a black rhinoceros egg, or oocyte, is almost invisible. Before the surgery began keepers had to perform the tricky task of immobilising, positioning and stabilising a dangerous animal with a reputation for charging first and not asking questions later. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Australia)
First Baby Is Born After Oocytes Were Matured In The Lab And Frozen Jul 3, 2007
He said: "Freezing a woman's eggs (or oocytes) has become an important and integral part of fertility treatment, and the introduction of new freezing techniques such as oocyte vitrification has increased significantly both oocyte survival and resulting pregnancy rates. However, to date, the pregnancies reported have been the result of fertilisation of frozen or vitrified and then thawed oocytes that had been collected after ovarian stimulation. Unfortunately, some patients seeking fertility... (Science Daily)
FDA Approves Ferring Pharmaceuticals' ENDOMETRIN(R) for Luteal Phase Support in Assisted Reproductive Technology Treatment Jun 22, 2007
ENDOMETRIN 100 mg is an insert administered vaginally two or three times daily, with a disposable matched applicator, starting at oocyte retrieval and continuing for up to 10 weeks total duration ... On the day of oocyte retrieval, patients were randomized to ENDOMETRIN 100 mg twice daily, ENDOMETRIN 100 mg three times daily, or an active control ((progesterone vaginal gel (90 mg) QD)) ... The corpus luteum, formed after the oocyte is released, secretes progesterone to induce secretory... (PR Newswire)
Lab Study Hints Viagra May Harm Male Fertility Jun 2, 2007
That Viagra may induce early activation of the acrosome reaction has "important clinical implications because sperm that acrosome-react before contact with the oocyte are incapable of fertilization," the researchers note in the journal Fertility and Sterility. "Given that the majority of sperm acrosome react on exposure to (Viagra), the drug may cause significant impairment to their fertilizing potential," they write. (MEDLINEplus)
our special feature Apr 24, 2007
In so many discussions on ES cells and therapeutic cloning ethics issues we can easy find contra-arguments like "embryo rights" or commercial abuse of poor oocyte donors, etc ... Mother donates her oocyte and with her child's somatic cell nuclei via NT technique we create ES cells and, eventually, differentiated cells of interest fully matched to the child's immune system ... Does mother have no right to save her own child by donating her oocyte for therapeutic cloning. (The Scientist)
Everything Conceivable Apr 21, 2007
A woman with aging eggs might gestate an embryo produced by her husband's sperm and a young donor's oocyte, thereby bearing his child - or children, since in vitro pregnancies often result in multiple births. Partly as a result of the increased use of this technology, the number of twins born in the United States from 1980 to 2003 rose 75 percent. (International Herald Tribune -- Arts)
Regular IVF often best when only one egg available Apr 7, 2007
Based on their findings, the clinicians conclude "there is no benefit to using ICSI in patients with a single oocyte and fertile sperm.". SOURCE: Fertility and Sterility, March 2007. (Scientific American)
Egg Harvesting a Risky Business, Group Warns Mar 12, 2007
com) - On International Women's Day, an advocacy group warned women Thursday about the health risks of egg (oocyte) harvesting for donation, in vitro fertilization, embryonic stem cell research and cloning. "Current practices follow a historical pattern of exposing women to risks that prove ultimately unacceptable," Diane Beeson, chair of the group Hands Off Our Ovaries, said at a Capitol Hill press conference. (CNSnews.com)
Sci-Health: Egg Market Feb 28, 2007
However, fewer women know about the increasing practice of oocyte -- or egg donation -- which often compensates $8,000. Fertility clinics across the country seek out willing women to donate their eggs for infertile families looking to have children via in-vitro fertilization. (Daily Collegian, PA)
Mouse Stem Cell Line Advance Suggests Potential For IVF-incompetent Eggs Feb 22, 2007
Researchers have found that mouse oocytes that fail to become fertilized during in vitro fertilization are nevertheless often capable of succeeding as "cytoplasmic donors" during a subsequent cloning step using so-called nuclear transfer. Although the implications for human eggs are not yet clear, the findings are of interest because of the ethical and practical concerns surrounding the need for fresh human oocytes for similar nuclear-transfer procedures using human cells ... Human IVF is now... (Science Daily)
Offering Hope: Frozen egg results in pregnancy, team of local doctor says Feb 21, 2007
The New England Fertility Institute is one of a number of fertility clinics in the state exploring the use of egg freezing - the scientific term is oocyte cyropreservation - to preserve fertility in aging women. It's a trend that could change the way young women look at pregnancy, allowing them to push motherhood to an indefinite future date. (Stamford Advocate)
Mouse Clones Sprout from Adult Skin Cells Feb 14, 2007
The most common type of nuclear transfer donor cell comes from the cumulus, which surrounds a developing egg or oocyte. (Considering their source, it should be no surprise that cumulus cells can only clone female mice. (Scientific American)
Mice Cloned from Skin Cells Feb 13, 2007
To clone the mice, researchers removed the nucleus from an unfertilized egg cell, called an oocyte and replaced it with the nucleus from an adult keratinocyte stem cell ... All it would involve, she pointed out, is an unfertilized oocyte, a skin biopsy, and a tissue culture dish. (Howard Hughes Medical Institute)
Scientists Clone Mice From Adult Skin Stem Cells Feb 13, 2007
To execute the nuclear transfer procedure, Li took unfertilized mouse oocytes and replaced the nucleus of each oocyte with a nucleus from these adult skin stem cells ... Greco, Guasch and Li compared the cloning efficiency of adult skin stem cells with that of more differentiated skin cells and also with cumulus cells -- the cells that surround a developing oocyte and have traditionally been the preferred cell type for nuclear transfer ... -- Therapeutic cloning (also known as somatic cell... (Science Daily)
