Role of apoptosis and autophagy in ovarian follicle pool decline in children and women diagnosed with benign or malignant extra-ovarian conditions.

Study Question: Which biological mechanisms are responsible for physiological ovarian reserve decline owing to aging, or pathological follicle depletion triggered by inflammation or a pro-oxidant environment throughout a woman's lifetime?

Summary Answer: Ovarian follicle pool size is modulated by both apoptosis and autophagy, the first responsible for its physiological decline over time and increasing in the event of prior chemotherapy in children, and the latter playing a major role in physiological ovarian follicle pool diminution before puberty.

What Is Known Already: Among the different pathways of controlled cell death, apoptosis and autophagy are implicated in follicle loss. Apoptosis participates in eliminating damaged follicles, such as those impaired by chemotherapy (CHT), but its involvement in physiological age-related follicle decline is less well understood.

Hard and soft X-ray imaging to resolve human ovarian cortical structures.

Laboratory and synchrotron X-ray tomography are powerful tools for non-invasive studies of biological samples at micrometric resolution. In particular, the development of phase contrast imaging is enabling the visualization of sample details with a small range of attenuation coefficients, thus allowing in-depth analyses of anatomical and histological structures. Reproductive medicine is starting to profit from these techniques, mainly applied to animal models.

Menstruation-related disseminated intravascular coagulation in an adenomyosis patient: case report and review of the literature.

Disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) is a high mortality coagulopathy that leads to simultaneous thrombotic and bleeding problems. It occurs as a complication in different disease as malignancies, obstetrical catastrophes, bacterial sepsis and traumas. We report on an extremely rare case of acute DIC in a patient with misdiagnosed adenomyosis and massive methrorragia which led to acute kidney failure.

A modified and tailored human follicle isolation procedure improves follicle recovery and survival.

Background: Ovarian tissue cryopreservation followed by transplantation after cancer remission is the most commonly applied fertility restoration approach in very young girls and women who require immediate cancer therapy. However, clinicians strongly advise against reimplantation of one's own ovarian tissue when there is a high risk of recurrence after grafting. For these patients, development of an alternative strategy, namely a transplantable artificial ovary, offers future hope of conceiving.