Reproductive Biology
Chapters
page 1 of 3 pages | next »Actions of Seminal Plasma Cytokines in Priming Female Reproductive Tract Receptivity for Embryo Implantation
Sarah A. Robertson, John J. Bromfield, Danielle J. Glynn, David J. Sharkey and Melinda J. Jasper
Embryo implantation is critically dependent on a supportive uterine environment. Uter ine receptivity is the culmination of a cellular and molecular transformation mediated locally by paracrine signals under the governance of ovarian steroid hormones, with cells and cytokines of the immune system...
Activation of Fertilized and Nuclear Transfer Eggs
Christopher Malcuit and Rafael A. Fissore
In all animal species, initiation of embryonic development occurs shortly after the joining together of the gametes from each of the sexes. The first of these steps, referred to as “egg activation”, is a series of molecular events that results in the syngamy of the two haploid genomes and the ...
B7 Family Molecules in the Placenta
Margaret G. Petroff
The mechanisms of acceptance of the fetus by the maternal immune system are mediated in part by immunomodulatory proteins expressed by placental cells. The recent discovery of novel members of the B7 family of immunomodulators has prompted much excitement among the scientific community because of...
Bi-directional Cell Trafficking During Pregnancy: Long-term Consequences for Human Health
Kristina M. Adams and J. Lee Nelson
During pregnancy some cells traffic between the fetus and mother and recent studies indicate low levels persist in the respective hosts decades later. Microchimerism (Mc) refers to a small population of cells or DNA harbored by one individual that derive from a genetically distinct individual. Pe...
Blood-Testis Barrier, Junctional and Transport Proteins and Spermatogenesis
B.P. Setchell
The term “blood-testis barrier” appears to have been first used by Chiquoine1 in an article on effects of cadmium on the testis, but evidence for such a barrier already existed, dating back to the early years of the twentieth century (see ref. 2 for early references). In a number of studies, i...
Centrosome Inheritance after Fertilization and Nuclear Transfer in Mammals
Qing-Yuan Sun and Heide Schatten
Centrosomes, the main microtubule organizing centers in a cell, are nonmembrane-bound semi-conservative organelles consisting of numerous centrosome proteins that typi- cally surround a pair of perpendicularly oriented cylindrical centrioles. Centrosome matrix is therefore oftentimes referred t...
Characterization of Human Dendritic Cells at the Maternal-Fetal Interphase
U. Kammerer, L. Rieger, A. Honig and E. Kampgen
The unusual tolerance against fetal antigens is still one of the greatest miracles of pregnancy. Dealing with reproductive immunology, the question arises as to how the maternal immune system handles the foreign fetal antigens leading to that tolerance. Focussing on the various subsets of immunoc...
Chromosome Abnormalities in Human Oocytes: Their Role in Reproductive Failure
Michelle Plachot
Chromosome number abnormalities are remarkably common in human reproduction, as a consequence of both whole chromosome nondisjunction and premature chromatid separation during oocyte meiosis I. Pooled data from previous studies suggests that one in five oocytes that fail to fertilize after in ...
Cloning Cattle: The Methods in the Madness
Björn Oback and David N. Wells
Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) is much more widely and efficiently practiced in cattle than in any other species, making this arguably the most important mammal cloned to date. While the initial objective behind cattle cloning was commercially driven—in particular to multiply genetically...
Cross-Talk between Tight and Anchoring Junctions—Lesson from the Testis
Helen H.N. Yan, Dolores D. Mruk, Will M. Lee and C. Yan Cheng
Spermatogenesis takes place in the seminiferous tubules in adult testes such as rats, in which developing germ cells must traverse the seminiferous epithelium while spermato gonia (2n, diploid) undergo mitotic and meiotic divisions, and differentiate into elongated spermatids (1n, haploid). It ...
Cytogenetics of Human Preimplantation Embryos
J.D.A. Delhanty* and D. Wells
Chromosomal abnormalities are common at all stages of human development and are the main cause of lethality between conception and birth. In natural conceptions the fecundity rate is about 25% while each embryo derived from in vitro fertilisation has on average a 1 in 5 chance of survival. The...
Cytogenetics of Human Sperm
Renee H. Martin
Constitutional chromosome abnormalities are seen frequently in infertile men. The consequences of these abnormalities in sperm are outlined. Infertile men with a normal chromosome karyotype also have an increased frequency of chromosome abnormalities in their sperm and a review of these studies i...
Developmental, Behavioral and Physiological Phenotype of Cloned Mice
Kellie L.K. Tamashiro, Randall R. Sakai, Yukiko Yamazaki, Teruhiko Wakayama and Ryuzo Yanagimachi
Cloning from adult somatic cells has been successful in at least ten species. Although generating viable cloned mammals from adult cells is technically feasible, prenatal and perinatal mortality is high and live cloned offspring have had health problems. This chapter summarizes the health cons...
Estrogens and Spermatogenesis
Chandrima Shaha
For many years androgens were thought to be the primary hormones required for proper functioning of the male reproductive system and testes were shown to be the major producers of the hormone. In the 1970s it was recognized that in addition to androgens testes were also a source of estrogens, ...
Extracellular Matrix and Its Role in Spermatogenesis
Michelle K.Y. Siu and C. Yan Cheng
In adult mammalian testes, such as rats, Sertoli and germ cells at different stages of their development in the seminiferous epithelium are in close contact with the basement mem- brane, a modified form of extracellular matrix (ECM). In essence, Sertoli and germ cells in particular spermatogoni...
Hedgehog Signaling in Endodermally Derived Tumors
Marina Pasca di Magliano and Matthias Hebrok
A relatively small number of intercellular signaling pathways, including the Hedgehog (Hh), transforming growth factor ? (TGF-beta), fibroblast growth factor (FGF), Wnt, and Notch pathways, interact to regulate embryonic development and organogenesis. In contrast to the other pathways, the mammal...
IL-10 and Pregnancy
Shaun P. Murphy and Surendra Sharma
Soon after the principles of nonself immunological recognition were discovered, it was realized that the state of pregnancy seemingly presents a paradox. In an outbreed popula tion, half of the fetal genes are paternal, thus the fetus may be considered a semi-allograft. Yet, unlike the outcome of...
Immunology and Pregnancy Losses: HLA, Autoantibodies and Cellular Immunity
Joanne Kwak-Kim, Joon Woo Kim and Alice Gilman-Sachs
Pregnancy loss is the one of the most common obstetrical complications. The majority of pregnancy losses are random or isolated incidences that in many cases are related to genetic abnormalities. However, 2-5 % of reproductive age women experience recurrent miscarriages.1,2 Recurrent pregnancy lo...
Immunology of Implantation: An Introduction
Gil Mor
Cases of recurrent abortions, preeclampsia or babies born with hemolytic diseases of the new born, still puzzle us with the question “Why did your mother reject you?” Although, after looking at the complexity of the maternal-fetal immune interaction and the cases of successful pregnancies, with s...
Important Role of Shh Controlling Gli3 Functions During the Dorsal-Ventral Patterning of the Telencephalon
Jun Motoyama and Kazushi Aoto
The dorsal-ventral patterning of the telencephalon is a crucial for the normal brain function, because it determines the proportion of two different types of basic neurons, glutamatergic excitatory neurons and GABAergic inhibitory neurons. The secreted protein sonic hedgehog (Shh) is required for...
Indoleamine 2,3 Dioxygenase dependent T cell Suppression and Pregnancy
Babak Baban, Phillip R. Chandler and Andrew L Mellor
Viviparity remains an immunological paradox despite increased knowledge of immunological processes that occur during mammalian pregnancy. The maternal immune system protects both mother and fetus from invading pathogens during gestation, but also has to maintain immunological tolerance towards th...
Infection and Antibiotics in the Aetiology, Prediction and Prevention of Preterm Labor
Lucy Killian and Ronald F. Lamont
Prematurity as a result of preterm birth is the major cause of perinatal mortality and morbidity in the developed world (Fig. 1). The world-wide prevalence of preterm birth (PTB) is 13 million births per year, though the incidence ranges from 5.8% in Oceania to 12% in North America. The incidence of...
Inflammatory Networks in the Control of Spermatogenesis Chronic Inflammation in an Immunologically Privileged Tissue?
Moira K. O′Bryan and Mark P. Hedger
Spermatogenesis is a complex, organized process involving intimate interactions between the developing germ cells and supporting Sertoli cells. The process is also highly regulated. Studies suggest that regulation in the seminiferous epithelium involves molecules normally associated with eithe...
Inherited Thrombophilias and Early Pregnancy Loss
Jens Langhoff-Roos, Michael J. Paidas, De-Hui Ku, Yale S. Arkel and Charles J. Lockwood
Inherited thrombophilias are a heterogeneous group of conditions which have been associated with a variety of pregnancy complications, including early and late fetal loss, intrauterine growth restriction, abruptio placentae, and preeclampsia.1 As the functional significance of the burgeoning list...
Interleukin-1 and Implantation
Jan-S. Krussel, Jens Hirchenhain, Andrea Schanz, Alexandra P. Hess, Hong-Yuan Huang, Carlos Sim—n and Mary Lake Polan
Infertility and pregnancy wastage affect one of every nine couples in Western Europe and in the United States. The molecular events of embryonic attachment to the endometrial epithelium and subsequent invasion and nidation into the stroma have long been of interest, scientifically to reproductive...
page 1 of 3 pages | next »
