The generation of live offspring from vitrified oocytes.

Oocyte cryopreservation is extremely beneficial for assisted reproductive technologies, the treatment of infertility and biotechnology and offers a viable alternative to embryo freezing and ovarian grafting approaches for the generation of embryonic stem cells and live offspring. It also offers the potential to store oocytes to rescue endangered species by somatic cell nuclear transfer and for the generation of embryonic stem cells to study development in these species. We vitrified mouse oocytes using a range of concentrations of trehalose (0 to 0.

Glioma pathogenesis-related 1-like 1 is testis enriched, dynamically modified, and redistributed during male germ cell maturation and has a potential role in sperm-oocyte binding.

The glioma pathogenesis-related 1 (GLIPR1) family consists of three genes [GLIPR1, GLIPR1-like 1 (GLIPR1L1), and GLIPR1-like 2 (GLIPR1L2)] and forms a distinct subgroup within the cysteine-rich secretory protein (CRISP), antigen 5, and pathogenesis-related 1 (CAP) superfamily. CAP superfamily proteins are found in phyla ranging from plants to humans and, based largely on expression and limited functional studies, are hypothesized to have roles in carcinogenesis, immunity, cell adhesion, and male fertility. Specifically data from a number of systems suggests that sequences within the C-terminal CAP domain of CAP proteins have the ability to promote cell-cell adhesion.

Activin C antagonizes activin A in vitro and overexpression leads to pathologies in vivo.

Activin A is a potent growth and differentiation factor whose synthesis and bioactivity are tightly regulated. Both follistatin binding and inhibin subunit heterodimerization block access to the activin receptor and/or receptor activation. We postulated that the activin-beta(C) subunit provides another mechanism regulating activin bioactivity.

Freeze-dried primate sperm retains early reproductive potential after intracytoplasmic sperm injection.

Oocytes inseminated by intracytoplasmic sperm injection using fresh ejaculated or freeze-dried rhesus macaque sperm showed similar activation, sperm aster assembly, and male-female pronuclear apposition rates.

Dynamic changes in the localization of five members of the methyl binding domain (MBD) gene family during murine and bovine preimplantation embryo development.

There are five methyl binding domain (MBD) proteins characterized by a methyl CpG-binding domain. Four MBD proteins (MeCP2 and MBDs 1-3) are linked to transcriptional repression and one (MBD4), to DNA repair. During preimplantation development, the embryo undergoes global demethylation following fertilization and selective remethylation following the maternal to zygotic transition (MZT).