Programming in vitro fertilization retrievals during working days after a gonadotropin-releasing hormone antagonist protocol with estrogen pretreatment: does the length of exposure to estradiol impact on controlled ovarian hyperstimulation outcomes?

Objective: To verify whether a variable number of days beyond the menses of estrogen (E) pretreatment may impact on controlled ovarian hyperstimulation (COH) outcomes and birth rate using a GnRH antagonist protocol.

Design: Single center, prospective, nonrandomized study.

Setting: Nonacademic fertility unit.

Study of aneuploidy in large-headed, multiple-tailed spermatozoa: case report and review of the literature.

Objective: To determine the meiotic segregation in large-headed, multiple-tailed spermatozoa.

Design: Analysis of sperm nuclei by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH).

Setting: University hospital.

Involvement of semenogelin-derived peptides in the antibacterial activity of human seminal plasma.

Mechanisms for protecting spermatozoa, and the testes that produce them, from infection are essential, given the importance of these cells and organs for the fertility of the individual and perpetuation of the species. This is borne out by the publication of numerous papers on this subject over the last 50 years. We extended our work and that of others on the anti-infectious defense system of the male genital tract, using a new strategy for the direct identification of antibacterial molecules in human seminal plasma.

Expression of antimicrobial defensins in the male reproductive tract of rats, mice, and humans.

Defensins are antimicrobial peptides that play a major role in innate immunity. Using reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction, immunochemistry, or both, we performed a search of all presently known defensins in rat testis, epididymis, and isolated testicular cells; in mouse testis and epididymis; and in human testis and ejaculates. In the rat, all alpha- and beta-defensins except RNP-4 were expressed within the testis, whereas alpha-defensins RNP1-2, RNP-4, and beta-defensins RBD-1 and RBD-2 were present within the epididymis.