The impact of microfluidics sperm processing on blastocyst euploidy rates compared with density gradient centrifugation: a sibling oocyte double-blinded prospective randomized clinical trial.

Objective: To compare the euploidy rates among blastocysts created from sibling oocytes injected with sperm and processed using microfluidics or density gradient centrifugation.

Design: Sibling oocyte randomized controlled trial.

Setting: Single university-affiliated infertility practice.

Attitudes towards disposition of cryopreserved sperm in the event of death.

Introduction: To evaluate patient preference for sperm disposition in case of death based on demographic factors and infertility etiology.

Materials And Methods: This retrospective cohort study was performed at a university hospital-affiliated fertility center. Charts of 550 men undergoing cryopreservation for assisted reproductive technologies (ART) between 2016-2019 were reviewed to create a descriptive dataset.

Rationale and study design of a double-blinded prospective randomized clinical trial comparing euploidy rates among embryos created from sibling oocytes injected with sperm processed by microfluidics or by density gradient centrifugation.

Background: During the in vitro fertilization (IVF) process, sperm must be processed prior to insemination. While the most common method, density gradient centrifugation, can potentially damage sperm during centrifugation, a recent advancement in sperm processing uses a microfluidics system which selects for the most highly motile sperm. In selecting for these sperm which may be of higher quality, the euploidy rates of embryos created as a result may also be improved.

Independent serum markers of corpora lutea function after gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist trigger and adjuvant low dose human chorionic gonadotropin in in vitro fertilization.

Objective: To characterize corpora lutea (CL) function after gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist (GnRHa) trigger with the use of adjuvant human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG).

Design: Secondary analysis of serum from prospective randomized clinical trial.

Setting: University-based fertility center.

The National Physicians Cooperative: transforming fertility management in the cancer setting and beyond.

Once unimaginable, fertility management is now a nationally established part of cancer care in institutions, from academic centers to community hospitals to private practices. Over the last two decades, advances in medicine and reproductive science have made it possible for men, women and children to be connected with an oncofertility specialist or offered fertility preservation soon after a cancer diagnosis. The Oncofertility Consortium's National Physicians Cooperative is a large-scale effort to engage physicians across disciplines - oncology, urology, obstetrics and gynecology, reproductive endocrinology, and behavioral health - in clinical and research activities to enable significant progress in providing fertility preservation options to children and adults.

Architecture of nanoscale ferroelectric domains in GaMoS.

Local-probe imaging of the ferroelectric domain structure and auxiliary bulk pyroelectric measurements were conducted at low temperatures with the aim to clarify the essential aspects of the orbitally driven phase transition in GaMoS, a lacunar spinel crystal that can be viewed as a spin-hole analogue of its GaVS counterpart. We employed multiple scanning probe techniques combined with symmetry and mechanical compatibility analysis to uncover the hierarchical domain structures, developing on the 10-100 nm scale. The identified domain architecture involves a plethora of ferroelectric domain boundaries and junctions, including primary and secondary domain walls in both electrically neutral and charged configurations, and topological line defects transforming neutral secondary walls into two oppositely charged ones.

Characteristics of ferroelectric-ferroelastic domains in Néel-type skyrmion host GaVS.

GaVS is a multiferroic semiconductor hosting Néel-type magnetic skyrmions dressed with electric polarization. At T = 42 K, the compound undergoes a structural phase transition of weakly first-order, from a non-centrosymmetric cubic phase at high temperatures to a polar rhombohedral structure at low temperatures. Below T, ferroelectric domains are formed with the electric polarization pointing along any of the four 〈111〉 axes.

Heuristic Description of Magnetoelectricity of Cu2OSeO3.

CuO2SeO3 is an insulating material that hosts topologically nontrivial spin whirls, so-called skyrmions, and exhibits magnetoelectric coupling allowing to manipulate these skyrmions by means of electric fields. We report magnetic force microscopy imaging of the real-space spin structure on the surface of a bulk single crystal of CuO2SeO3. Based on measurements of the electric polarization using Kelvin-probe force microscopy, we develop a heuristic description of the magnetoelectric properties in CuO2SeO3.

Multidomain Skyrmion Lattice State in Cu2OSeO3.

Magnetic skyrmions in chiral magnets are nanoscale, topologically protected magnetization swirls that are promising candidates for spintronics memory carriers. Therefore, observing and manipulating the skyrmion state on the surface level of the materials are of great importance for future applications. Here, we report a controlled way of creating a multidomain skyrmion state near the surface of a Cu2OSeO3 single crystal, observed by soft resonant elastic X-ray scattering.

Néel-type skyrmion lattice with confined orientation in the polar magnetic semiconductor GaV4S8.

Following the early prediction of the skyrmion lattice (SkL)--a periodic array of spin vortices--it has been observed recently in various magnetic crystals mostly with chiral structure. Although non-chiral but polar crystals with Cnv symmetry were identified as ideal SkL hosts in pioneering theoretical studies, this archetype of SkL has remained experimentally unexplored. Here, we report the discovery of a SkL in the polar magnetic semiconductor GaV4S8 with rhombohedral (C3v) symmetry and easy axis anisotropy.

Sequential embryo assessment outperforms investigator-driven morphological assessment at selecting a good quality blastocyst.

Two selection methods (morphology-only and a sequential embryo assessment algorithm) were compared within the same IVF clinic to determine which method best identifies the embryos on day 3 that will develop into the highest quality on day 5. The sequential embryo assessment algorithm was significantly better at selecting the best embryo and selecting a blastocyst compared with the morphology-only method.

A soluble molecule secreted by human blastocysts modulates regulation of HOXA10 expression in an epithelial endometrial cell line.

Objective: To determine the existence of a soluble signal, secreted from the human blastocyst embryo, that induces HOXA10 gene expression before cell-cell contact.

Design: To analyze, by semiquantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), cell-free media that had contained human embryos cultured to the blastocyst stage for a soluble molecule that induces HOXA10 expression in an endometrial epithelial cell line (Ishikawa).

Setting: Assisted reproduction technology program of Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.

Sequential assessment of individually cultured human embryos as an indicator of subsequent good quality blastocyst development.

Background: It is of fundamental importance for IVF clinics to determine the most viable embryos for transfer. The challenge for ART clinics is to transfer fewer embryos, thereby minimizing the risk of multiple-infant births, while still maintaining the greatest chance of pregnancy for their patients. In this study, an investigation was made to determine if developmental markers on the day of fertilization (day 1) can predict good subsequent blastocyst development.

Analysis of DNA fragmentation of in vitro cultured bovine blastocysts using TUNEL.

Programmed cell death (apoptosis) characteristically affects the single cells of blastocysts whereas necrosis affects cluster of cells in both the inner cell mass (ICM) and the trophectoderm (TE). This study uses the trophectodermrminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdT) mediated dUTP nick-end labeling (TUNEL) assay as a way of evaluating the proportion of apoptotic cells and, thus, bovine blastocyst quality during in vitro culture at Days 6,7, and 8. Furthermore, parthenogenetic blastocysts were compared to in vitro fertilized blastocysts at Day 7.

Accumulation of the proteolytic marker peptide ubiquitin in the trophoblast of mammalian blastocysts.

Ubiquitination is a universal protein degradation pathway in which the molecules of 8.5-kDa proteolytic peptide ubiquitin are covalently attached to the epsilon-amino group of the substrate's lysine residues. Little is known about the importance of this highly conserved mechanism for protein recycling in mammalian gametogenesis and fertilization.

Ubiquitin-dependent sperm quality control mechanism recognizes spermatozoa with DNA defects as revealed by dual ubiquitin-TUNEL assay.

Defective mammalian spermatozoa become ubiquitinated during epididymal passage, a mechanism that may mark the abnormal spermatozoa for proteolytic destruction (Sutovsky et al., 2001a: J Cell Sci 114:1665-1675). It is not known how such spermatozoa are recognized by the epididymal ubiquitination pathway and whether there is a selection against certain types of sperm defects.

Clonal propagation of primate offspring by embryo splitting.

Primates that are identical in both nuclear and cytoplasmic components have not been produced by current cloning strategies, yet such identicals represent the ideal model for investigations of human diseases. Here, genetically identical nonhuman embryos were produced as twin and larger sets by separation and reaggregation of blastomeres of cleavage-stage embryos. A total of 368 multiples were created by the splitting of 107 rhesus embryos with four pregnancies established after 13 embryo transfers (31% versus 53% in vitro fertilization controls).

Is the mouse a clinically relevant model for human fertilization failures?

This study compares failed fertilization oocytes from patients participating in an in-vitro fertilization (IVF) programme with failed fertilization oocytes from B6SJLF(1)/J mice, in order to characterize and describe the distribution of DNA in oocytes that do not undergo normal fertilization. Our goal is to evaluate the mouse IVF system as a model to gain insight into reasons for human fertilization failures. All oocytes were stained with the vital fluorescent dye, Hoechst 33342, which rapidly stains double-stranded DNA.

Efficient human sperm pronucleus formation and replication in Xenopus egg extracts.

We have achieved efficient in vitro reactivation and replication of human sperm nuclei in frog egg extracts by constructing a 4-step protocol that mimics the events of fertilization and pronucleus formation in mammalian eggs. With use of this protocol, 78-97% of human sperm nuclei from fertile donors synchronously swelled and completed full genome replication in about 2 h. We document the changes in nuclear structure that accompany efficient DNA synthesis and discuss future research and potential clinical implications of this new system.

Effects of fluorine substitution on the DNA binding and tumorigenicity of benzo[b]fluoranthene in mouse epidermis.

The effects of fluorine substitution on benzo[b]fluoranthene (B[b]F) DNA adduct formation and tumorigenicity in mouse epidermis were investigated. Fluoro derivatives studied included 1-, 6-, 7-, 8-, 9- and 11-fluoroB[b]F as well as 1,9- and 6,9-difluoroB[b]F. Each compound was applied topically to mice and hydrocarbon/DNA adduct formation was assessed using the 32P-post-labelling technique.