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Today, timely diagnosis and therapeutic progress open a road of hope for survival in cancerous patients. Increased knowledge about the various cytotoxic treatment's impacts on ovarian function and fertility has resulted in a surge in the number of patients seeking to preserve their fertility before starting the anti-cancer treatment process. In this regard, embryo cryopreservation can be recommended for fertility preservation when the woman is married and has adequate time for ovarian stimulation. If patients are prepubertal girls or not married women, oocytes or ovarian tissue can be frozen instead to be used in the future. In this regard, the first attempts for ovarian tissue transplantations were conducted in 2016 and in 2019 for two cancerous patients whose ovarian tissue was cryopreserved in the Royan Human Ovarian Tissue Bank (Tehran, Iran). Unfortunately, the transplantations did not result in a live birth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic struck global health systems with overgrowing demands in many fields of health care; yet, reproductive care, particularly pregnancy care remains a special focus of interest. Pregnancy is a major physiologic change that alters temporarily normal function of many organs, and specifically the immune system. Therefore, pregnant women are more susceptible to respiratory pathogens compared to the others. The current pandemic may have serious consequences on pregnancy whether directly or indirectly. In the present review, direct and indirect possible adverse effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection on female reproductive system by focusing on pregnancy and delivery has been discussed in details. In addition, the pregnancy consequences and whether maternal infection can affect infants were deliberated. The adverse impact of luck down and related psychological complications and obesity on pregnant women were discussed as well. Finally, the effects of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination on maternal health and pregnancy outcome was analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trans‐fatty acids (TFAs) consumption has created concerns regarding male/female reproductive system. However, the effects of TFA in paternal diet on offspring's reproduction have not been addressed. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of rat paternal TFAs and vitamin E consumption on offspring's sperm quality and expression pattern of peroxisome proliferator‐activated receptors (PPARs) in testis tissues. Forty adult male rats were randomly divided into four groups: Control diet (C); Control diet plus TFA (CTH); diet supplemented with vitamin E (E) and a diet containing vitamin E and TFA (ETH). Mother rats had normal diet during gestation period. Three offspring from each group were chosen randomly and their testicular samples were collected, and sperm parameters were measured by CASA. Our results indicate that feeding fathers with TFA can negatively affect offspring's sperm concentration and motility, while consumption of vitamin E can improve these parameters (p <.05). The paternal diet containing TFA down‐regulated the expression of PPARβ and PPARγ genes, whereas vitamin E‐containing diet up‐regulated the transcription of PPAR genes. In conclusion, TFA intake in paternal diet may have negative effects on reproductive system of the offspring while vitamin E may not diminish these effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Testing novel biomaterials for the three dimensional (3D) culture of ovarian follicles may ultimately lead to a culture model which can support the integrity of follicles during in vitro culture (IVC). The present study reports the first application of a chitosan (CS) hydrogel in culturing mouse preantral follicles. Materials and Methods: In this interventional experiment study, CS hydrogels with the concentrations of 0.5, 1, and 1.5% were first tested for fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), Compressive Strength, viscosity, degradation, swelling ratio, 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) cytotoxicity and live/dead assay. Thereafter, mouse ovarian follicles were encapsulated in optimum concentration of CS (1%) and compared with those in alginate hydrogel. The follicular morphology, quality of matured oocyte and steroid secretion in both CS and alginate were assessed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The expression of folliculogenesis, endocrine, and apoptotic related genes was also evaluated by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and compared with day that in 0. Results: The rates of survival, and diameter of the follicles, secretion of estradiol, normal appearance of meiotic spindle and chromosome alignment were all higher in CS group compared with those in alginate group (P≤0.05). The expression of Cyp19a1 and Lhcgr in CS group was significantly higher than that of the alginate group (P≤0.05). Conclusion: The results showed that CS is a permissive hydrogel and has a beneficial effect on encapsulation of ovarian follicle and its further development during 3D culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study was conducted to assess survival of follicles, their oocyte maturation and fertilization potential as well as expression of early embryo developmental genes in in vitro cultured pre-antral follicles derived from vitrified-warmed mouse ovary. Materials and Methods: In this experimental study, ovaries of 12-day old Naval Medical Research Institute (NMRI) female mice were placed into non-vitrified and vitrified-warmed groups. Isolated preantral follicles from experimental groups were cultured in vitro for 12 days. On the 12th day of culture, oocyte maturation was induced and then matured oocytes were in vitro fertilized. The rates of oocyte maturation and two-cell stage embryo formation were assessed. Relative expression of Mater and Zar1 was evaluated on days 1, 6, 10 and 12 of culture. Data analysis was performed by t test and two-way ANOVA (P<0.05). Results: Our data showed no significant difference between the control and vitrification groups in the rate of follicular survival, oocyte maturation and two-cell stage embryo formation. The level of gene expression was higher on the 6th and 10th days of culture for Mater and Zar1 in vitrified-warmed group compared with non-vitrified group, however, there was no significant difference between the two groups. Conclusion: It seems that the applied vitrification method did not reveal any negative effect on maturation and developmental competence of oocytes surrounded in preantral follicles and therefore could preserve follicular reserves efficiently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was evaluation of survivability, maturation rate and apoptotic gene expression of preantral follicles after vitrification and slow freezing technique. Normal mouse preantral follicles were randomly divided into three experimental groups. In the control group, follicles were cultured immediately; in the vitrification and slow freezing groups, follicles were cultured after vitrification-warming and slow freezing-thawing procedures. Follicular viability was assessed by using 0.4% trypan blue, and molecular evaluation of messenger RNA levels of apoptosis-related genes was performed by the semi-quantitative RT-PCR method after 3 h of culture. Oocyte maturation rates were also evaluated on day 14 of culture. Survival and maturation rate in the slow freezing group were significantly lower than those in control and vitrification groups (P = 0.05). Although there was no difference in Survivin expression among the three experimental groups, Bcl-2 expression was significantly lower in the slow freezing group compared to the other groups (P = 0.05). The expression of Bax, P53, Fas and Bax/Bcl-2 ratio in the slow freezing group was significantly higher than control and vitrification groups (P = 0.05). Preantral follicle vitrification seems to be better than slow freezing as seen in the survival, maturation and expression rates of apoptotic gene variants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]