Plastic used in in vitro fertilization procedures induces massive placental gene expression alterations.

Background: The exposure to plastic derivatives during human life is deleterious. Infants conceived using ART (IVF or ICSI) have twice as many risks of major birth defects compared to naturally conceived infants. Could plastic ware used during ART trigger defects in the fetal development?

Methods: Three groups of blastocysts were transferred to pseudopregnant mice.

Fertilization, but Not Post-Implantation Development, Can Occur in the Absence of Sperm and Oocyte Beta1 Integrin in Mice.

Fertilization is a complex process that requires successive stages and culminates in the adhesion/fusion of gamete membranes. If the question of the involvement of oocyte integrins has been swept away by deletion experiments, that of the involvement of sperm integrins remains to be further characterized. In the present study, we addressed the question of the feasibility of sperm-oocyte adhesion/fusion and early implantation in the absence of sperm β1 integrin.

Control of Ca signals by astrocyte nanoscale morphology at tripartite synapses.

Much of the Ca activity in astrocytes is spatially restricted to microdomains and occurs in fine processes that form a complex anatomical meshwork, the so-called spongiform domain. A growing body of literature indicates that those astrocytic Ca signals can influence the activity of neuronal synapses and thus tune the flow of information through neuronal circuits. Because of technical difficulties in accessing the small spatial scale involved, the role of astrocyte morphology on Ca microdomain activity remains poorly understood.

Cyclic fertilin-derived peptide stimulates in vitro human embryo development.

Objective: To study the cyclic fertilin peptide effects on preimplantation human embryogenesis. Cyclic fertilin peptide reproduces the structure of the binding site of the sperm Fertilin β (also named A Disintegrin and Metalloprotease 2: ADAM2) disintegrin domain. It binds to the oocyte membrane and increases sperm-oocyte fusion index in human and fertilization rate in mouse, providing healthy pups.