Follicle-stimulating hormone receptor gene polymorphism in chronic anovulatory women, with or without polycystic ovary syndrome: a cross-sectional study.

Background: Polymorphisms at codons 307 and 680 are the most commonly encountered allelic variants of the follicle-stimulating hormone receptor (FSHR) gene. Studies in Caucasians suggest that certain FSHR variants are more common in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) than normal women. The objective of this study was to determine the distribution of FSHR gene polymorphisms at codons 307 and 680 in Thai women with chronic anovulation, without (121 women) and with PCOS (133 women), using 132 known fertile women as controls.

Effects of partial or complete laser-assisted hatching on the hatching of mouse blastocysts and their cell numbers.

Background: It is still debatable whether a full-thickness assisted hatching (AH) is better than the partial zona thinning. In this research, we used a mouse model to study the effect of partial and complete laser-AH on the rate of completely hatched blastocyst and their cell numbers.

Methods: In experiment 1, mouse morulae had 0, 1, 2 or 3 full-thickness openings of 10 microns created in the zona pellucida with an infrared laser beam.

Repeated vitrification/warming of human sperm gives better results than repeated slow programmable freezing.

In this study, we compared the effects of repeated freezing/thawing of human sperm by our in-house method of rapid freezing with slow programmable freezing. Sperm samples from 11 normozoospermic subjects were processed through density gradients and divided into three aliquots: non-frozen, rapid freezing and slow programmable freezing. Sperm in the rapid freezing group had better motility and viability than those in the slow freezing group (P<0.