Changes in DNA integrity and gene expression in ovarian follicular cells of lipopolysaccharide-treated female mice.

Background: Lipopolysaccharide (LPS), the endotoxin of gram-negative bacteria, can impair female reproductive function. However, there is a little information about genotoxic stress in ovarian follicular cells as well as about the changes in oocyte developmental potential under endotoxemia. So the aim of our study was to investigate in vitro oocyte maturation, the DNA damage and expression of some developmental competence-related genes in follicular cells of mice treated with LPS.

CUMULUS CELL GENES AS POTENTIAL BIOMARKERS OF OOCYTE AND EMBRYO DEVELOPMENTAL COMPETENCE.

Bogomoletz Institute of Physiology NASU, Ukraine, Kiev. The selection of embryos with high implantation potential is the most important task in assisted reproductive technology. Today, this selection is based on subjective morphological criteria such as growth rate, early cleavage, the degree of fragmentation, blastocyst formation.

[Analysis of peptides from animal and plant tissues].

A new technique was developed for the analysis of peptide compositions of extracts from various animal and plant tissues. It involves the acidic extraction of a peptide fraction from the starting material and its precipitation with acetone, fractionation of peptides by ion-exchange chromatography by using a stepwise elution of fractions and detection by means of ninhydrin color reaction, and computer processing of the results. For the presentation of the results of analysis, chromatographic profiles and peptidograms were proposed.

[Synthesis and biological properties of delta-sleep peptide analogs. 2. Antimetastatic effect].

With the aim to investigate structure-functional relations of DSIP, 11 DSIP analogues were tested on antimetastatic activity, among them five new analogues, differing in positions 2 and 6 of the DSIP amino acid sequence were synthesized by the solid-phase method using Fmoc-approach. Experiments on C57B1 mice with metastatic Lewis lung carcinoma showed some analogues to be more efficient as antimetastatic agents then DSIP after i.v.