Vitamin A prevents round spermatid nuclear damage and promotes the production of motile sperm during in vitro maturation of vitrified pre-pubertal mouse testicular tissue.

Study Question: Does vitamin A (retinol, Rol) prevent round spermatid nuclear damage and increase the production of motile sperm during in vitro maturation of vitrified pre-pubertal mouse testicular tissue?

Summary Answer: The supplementation of an in vitro culture of ~0.75 mm testicular explants from pre-pubertal mice with Rol enhances spermatogenesis progression during the first spermatogenic wave.

What Is Known Already: The production of functional spermatozoa in vitro has only been achieved in the mouse model and remains a rare event.

Assessment of the optimal vitrification protocol for pre-pubertal mice testes leading to successful in vitro production of flagellated spermatozoa.

Testicular tissue cryopreservation offers the hope of preserved future fertility to pre-pubertal boys with cancer before exposition to gonadotoxic treatments. The objective of this study was to compare controlled slow freezing (CSF) with five vitrification techniques for cryopreservation of murine pre-pubertal testicular tissue and to evaluate the best protocol that could provide a successful completion of spermatogenesis after in vitro maturation. Testicular tissue from 24 mice at 6.

Comparison of the deleterious effects of binge drinking-like alcohol exposure in adolescent and adult mice.

A major cause of alcohol toxicity is the production of reactive oxygen species generated during ethanol metabolism. The aim of this study was to compare the effect of binge drinking-like alcohol exposure on a panel of genes implicated in oxidative mechanisms in adolescent and adult mice. In adolescent animals, alcohol decreased the expression of genes involved in the repair and protection of oxidative DNA damage such as atr, gpx7, or nudt15 and increased the expression of proapoptotic genes such as casp3.

Delayed pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide delivery after brain stroke improves functional recovery by inducing m2 microglia/macrophage polarization.

Background And Purpose: Until now, except thrombolysis, the therapeutical strategies targeting the acute phase of cerebral ischemia have been proven ineffective, and no approach is available to attenuate the delayed cell death mechanisms and the resulting functional deficits in the late phase. Then, we investigated whether a targeted and delayed delivery of pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide (PACAP), a peptide known to exert neuroprotective activities, may dampen delayed pathophysiological processes improving functional recovery.

Methods: Three days after permanent focal ischemia, PACAP-producing stem cells were transplanted intracerebro ventricularly in nonimmunosuppressed mice.

Biochemical characterization of plasma membrane isolated from human skeletal muscle.

Specific components of ion translocation systems were studied in excitable plasma membranes isolated from normal human muscle. Na+-K+ ATPase and ouabain-sensitive K+ phosphatase activities were 8.9 +/- 1 mumol Pi/h per mg protein and 96 +/- 9 nmol/min per mg protein, respectively.