Micronutrient-Antioxidant Therapy and Male Fertility Improvement During ART Cycles.

Today, accumulating evidence highlights the impact of oxidative stress (OS) on semen quality. It is considered to be a key factor contributing to the decline in male fertility. OS is detected in 30-80% of men with infertility, highlighting its strong association with impaired reproductive function and with clinical outcomes following the use of assisted reproductive technologies.

Quantification of Free Circulating DNA and Differential Methylation Profiling of Selected Genes as Novel Non-Invasive Biomarkers for Endometriosis Diagnosis.

Endometriosis is a chronic, estrogen-dependent disorder associated with the presence of endometrial cells mainly in the pelvic cavity, causing systemic immune inflammation, infertility, epigenetic dysregulation of differential DNA methylation, coelomic metaplasia, and pain. It affects approximately 10-12% of women. Despite decades of research, full pathophysiology, a diagnostic roadmap, and clinical management strategies for endometriosis are not yet fully elucidated.

Effects of Essential Oils as Antioxidant and Cryoprotective Agents in Improving Frozen and Thawed Human Sperm Criteria.

Sperm cryopreservation provides patients undergoing oncological, surgical, or infertility treatments the opportunity to conceive their own children, using assisted reproductive technologies. However, the freezing-thawing process can negatively influence both the quantity and the quality of spermatozoa, mainly due to an excessive production of reactive oxygen species and/or an impaired antioxidant defense system in sperm. Aromatic and medicinal plants synthesize essential oils with antioxidant proprieties as a part of their ecological adaptation to environmental stress, thanks to their rich bioactive phytochemical components.

Endocrine disruptor chemicals exposure and female fertility declining: from pathophysiology to epigenetic risks.

Over the last decades, human infertility has become a major concern in public health, with severe societal and health consequences. Growing evidence shows that endocrine disruptors chemicals (EDCs) have been considered as risk factors of infertility. Their presence in our everyday life has become ubiquitous because of their universal use in food and beverage containers, personal care products, cosmetics, phytosanitary products.

Genome and Epigenome Disorders and Male Infertility: Feedback from 15 Years of Clinical and Research Experience.

Infertility affects around 20% of couples of reproductive age; however, in some societies, as many as one-third of couples are unable to conceive. Different factors contribute to the decline of male fertility, such us environmental and professional exposure to endocrine disruptors, oxidative stress, and life habits with the risk of de novo epigenetics dysregulation. Since the fantastic development of new "omes and omics" technologies, the contribution of inherited or de novo genomes and epigenome disorders to male infertility have been further elucidated.

Endocrine disrupting chemicals and male fertility: from physiological to molecular effects.

The deleterious effects of chemical or non-chemical endocrine disruptors (EDs) on male fertility potential is well documented but still not fully elucidated. For example, the detection of industrial chemicals' metabolites in seminal plasma and follicular fluid can affect efficiency of the gametogenesis, the maturation and competency of gametes and has guided scientists to hypothesize that endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) may disrupt hormonal homoeostasis by leading to a wide range of hormonal control impairments. The effects of EDCs exposure on reproductive health are highly dependent on factors including the type of EDCs, the duration of exposure, individual susceptibility, and the presence of other co-factors.

Paternal Age Matters: Association with Sperm Criteria's- Spermatozoa DNA Integrity and Methylation Profile.

Advanced age has been reported to negatively affect sperm parameters and spermatozoa DNA integrity. A decline in sperm criteria was also associated with altered epigenetic marks such as DNA methylation with a potential downstream impact on in vitro fertilization success and clinical outcomes. The aim of the present retrospective study was to clarify the association between advanced paternal age (APA) and sperm parameters, DNA integrity and DNA methylation profile.

Effect of pesticide exposure on human sperm characteristics, genome integrity, and methylation profile analysis.

According to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization, the quantities of pesticide used around the world have increased regularly since the 1990s. Given that pesticides may be classified as carcinogenic, mutagenic, neurotoxic, or toxic for reproduction, some have endocrine-disrupting properties that might be associated with a decline in sperm parameters in general and sperm DNA integrity in particular. These days, a sperm analysis is not enough to determine the etiology of male infertility.

[Electronic cigarettes and fertility: True or false friends?].

While electronic cigarettes have been on the rise in France for the past ten years, data on their prevalence, use patterns and safety have remained fragmented and controversial. Electronic cigarettes seem to not be a harmless product to use, because although they contain fewer harmful substances than traditional cigarettes, they still contain toxic products such as endocrine disruptors, which appear to have a negative impact on hormonal homeostasis, morphology and functioning of the animal reproductive system. Mostly presented as a harmless alternative to traditional cigarettes by industry lobbies, electronic cigarettes are often offered as an aid to smoking cessation in the same way as nicotinic substitutes.

Endometrium Immunomodulation to Prevent Recurrent Implantation Failure in Assisted Reproductive Technology.

After more than four decades of assisted reproductive technology (ART) practice worldwide, today more than 60% of women undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments fail to become pregnant after the first embryo transfer and nearly 20% of patients are suffering from unexplained recurrent implantation failures (RIFs) and repeated pregnancy loss (RPL). The literature reported different causes of RIF-RPL, mainly multifactorial, endometrial and idiopathic. RIF remains a black box because of the complicated categorization and causes of this physio-pathological dysregulation of implantation and pregnancy process after ovarian stimulation.

In vitro maturation of oocytes from stimulated IVF-ICSI cycles using autologous cumulus cell co-culture: A preliminary study.

Purpose Of The Study: In stimulated IVF-ICSI cycles, follicles at different stages of maturation can be aspirated during oocyte pickup. Nowadays, only mature oocytes (metaphase 2 stage) are used and immature oocytes (germinal vesicle and metaphase 1 stages), which are judged unfit for fertilization, are non-used at day 0. In our IVF center, the rate of immature oocytes recovered is around 25%.

Impact of Endocrine Disruptors upon Non-Genetic Inheritance.

Similar to environmental factors, EDCs (endocrine-disrupting chemicals) can influence gene expression without modifying the DNA sequence. It is commonly accepted that the transgenerational inheritance of parentally acquired traits is conveyed by epigenetic alterations also known as "epimutations". DNA methylation, acetylation, histone modification, RNA-mediated effects and extracellular vesicle effects are the mechanisms that have been described so far to be responsible for these epimutations.

Should intrauterine inseminations still be proposed in cases of unexplained infertility? Retrospective study and literature review.

Objective: Unexplained infertility is defined by the absence of identifiable causes of infertility. The results of randomized studies and meta-analysis regarding the treatment of unexplained infertility are discordant due to methodological problems.

Design: The aim of this study is to compare the clinical pregnancy rate per cycle (CPR/c) in IUI and IVF/ICSI in cases of unexplained infertility, according to the woman's age group and to identify the factors which predict success.

Follicular GH and IGF1 Levels Are Associated With Oocyte Cohort Quality: A Pilot Study.

Introduction: Oocyte quality contributes to the development of an optimal embryo and thus a successful pregnancy. The objective of this study was to analyse the association between oocyte cohort quality and the follicular levels of growth hormone (GH), insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1), 25-hydroxy vitamin D (25OHD), thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), free triiodothyronine (fT3), free thyroxine (fT4) and antithyroid antibodies, as a function of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) outcomes.

Material And Methods: We conducted a prospective comparative pilot study from January 2013 to December 2017.

Growth hormone replacement improved oocyte quality in a patient with hypopituitarism: A study of follicular fluid.

Background: Growth hormone (GH) is known to be involved in ovarian folliculogenesis and oocyte maturation. In patients with poor ovarian response without growth hormone deficiency (GHD), adjuvant GH treatment improves in-vitro fertilization (IVF) results. Improvement of oocyte quality in IVF by GH replacement was reported in only a few patients with GHD.

Seminal cell-free DNA and sperm characteristic's: An added biomarker for male infertility investigation.

Cell-free DNA (Cf-DNA) fragments may constitute an easy-to-measure molecular tool for guiding the choice of care provided to infertile couples who benefit assisted reproductive technology (ART) programmes. Data on Cf-DNA levels in the seminal plasma of men with sperm alterations are scarce. The objective of the present study was to quantify the presence of Cf-DNA in semen by using a quantitative real-time PCR.

Can Ratios Between Prognostic Factors Predict the Clinical Pregnancy Rate in an IVF/ICSI Program with a GnRH Agonist-FSH/hMG Protocol? An Assessment of 2421 Embryo Transfers, and a Review of the Literature.

None of the models developed in in vitro fertilization/intracytoplasmic sperm injection (IVF/ICSI) is sufficiently good predictors of pregnancy. The aim of this study was to determine whether ratios between prognostic factors could predict the clinical pregnancy rate in IVF/ICSI. We analyzed IVF/ICSI cycles (based on long GnRH agonist-FSH protocols) at two ART centers (the second to validate externally the data).

Pregnancy after oocyte donation in a patient with NLRP7 gene mutations and recurrent molar hydatidiform pregnancies.

Molar pregnancies are benign trophoblastic diseases associated with a risk of malignant transformation. If aetiology remains mostly unknown, the risk of recurrent molar pregnancy is around 1.5% after one molar pregnancy and around 25% after 2 molar pregnancies.

The impact of endocrine disruptor chemicals on oocyte/embryo and clinical outcomes in IVF.

The negative impact of endocrine-disrupting pesticides on human fertility is now a key issue in reproductive health. There are much fewer literature data about the impact of pesticide exposure on women than on men and very few studies of women participating in an in vitro fertilization (IVF) programme. In the present review, we found that (1) various pesticides with an endocrine-disrupting action are associated with poor oocyte maturation and competency, embryonic defects and poor IVF outcomes, and (2) some pesticide compounds are linked to specific causes of female infertility, such as premature ovarian insufficiency, polycystic ovarian syndrome, and endometriosis.

It Is Necessary to Purpose an Add-on to the American Classification of Endometriosis? This Disease Can Be Compared to a Malignant Proliferation While Remaining Benign in Most Cases. EndoGram® Is a New Profile Witness of Its Evolutionary Potential.

Endometriosis is a curious pathology that has been the topic of many international publications. Its etiology remains mysterious but seems to have multiple causes. It is a complex disease whose lesions are very heterogeneous in where they can occur (deep endometriosis, superficial, ovarian cyst), extent, associated symptoms, evolution or aggressiveness of the disease, and response to treatments.

Comparison of two preventive treatments for patients with recurrent miscarriages carrying a C677T methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase mutation: 5-year experience.

Objective To investigate the effect of anticoagulant treatment on pregnancy outcomes in patients with previous recurrent miscarriages (RM) who carry a methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase ( MTHFR) gene mutation. Methods In this longitudinal retrospective study, patients with RM were treated during pregnancy with either: (i) 100 mg/day aspirin and 5 mg/day folic acid (group 1); or the same protocol plus 0.4 mg/day enoxaparin (group 2).