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Idiopathic non-obstructive azoospermia (INOA) is one of the most severe forms of male infertility, yet its pathophysiology remains unclear. WT1 (Wilm's tumor 1) regulates the polarity of Sertoli cells, thereby playing a critical, indirect role in spermatogenesis. Here, we evaluated WT1 gene variation associates with INOA by assessing its promoter and coding regions in 200 patients diagnosed with INOA and 200 proven fertile men. Three novel variants in the WT1 coding region were detected only in INOA patients, including two synonymous variants and one missense variant, p.Phe435Leu (p.F435L), which was predicted to be deleterious to protein function. The results of dual luciferase reporter showed that the WT1 p.F435L variant decreases transcription of COL4A1 and WNT4 promoters through a dominant-negative effect. Furthermore, chromatin immunoprecipitation assays revealed that COL4A1 and WNT4 promoter is directly bound by wild-type WT1 protein, but not the p.F435L WT1 variant. Thus, we identified a novel functional variant of WT1 functionally associated with INOA. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

Although healthy infants have developed from non- and mono-pronuclear zygotes, the transfer of embryos from non- and mono-pronuclear zygotes is not recommended because there are no proper selection criteria. In the present study, we discuss how to select non- and mono-pronuclear embryos with the highest developmental potential at 19-20 hours post-insemination. We found that the percentage of blastocysts with normal chromosome constitution in non-pronuclear zygotes was slightly higher than in mono-pronuclear zygotes. Non- and mono-pronuclear embryos that were at the 4-cell stage on D2 and/or at the 6- to 8-cell stage on D3 had higher incidence rates of blastocysts with normal chromosome constitutions. We also found higher incidences of blastocysts with normal chromosome constitution on D6 than on D5. The results suggest that if high quality non- and mono-pronuclear zygotes develop to the 4-cell stage on D2 and the 6-to 8- cell stages on D3, along with high quality D6 blastocysts, the incidence of blastocysts with normal chromosome constitution is higher.

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is the most common endocrinopathy among women at reproductive age. However, its etiology remains poorly understood. Recent studies indicated that telomere length was related to PCOS. However, the association between telomere length and PCOS has only been shown in leucocytes and remained controversial across different studies. To clarify the association between telomere length and PCOS, the current study interrogated telomere length not only in leucocytes, but also in follicular granulosa cells, which is essential for folliculogenesis and steroidogenesis.Seventy-five patients with PCOS and 81 controls with mechanical infertility undergoing their first in vitro fertilization cycle were enrolled. Their peripheral blood and granulosa cells were collected on the oocyte retrieval day. Telomere length of both leucocytes in the blood and granulosa cells was assayed by quantitative polymerase chain reaction.No significant difference was found in the leucocyte telomere length between controls and PCOS patients (0.99 ± 0.44 vs. 1.00 ± 0.38, p = 0.93). Interestingly, when comparing telomere length in granulosa cells between controls and PCOS subjects, significantly lengthened telomere length was found in PCOS subjects (1.00 ± 0.37 vs. 1.57±0.67, p 0.0001). After adjustments for age and body mass index, the p value remained significant (p 0.0001).This finding reinforced the association between telomere abnormalities and PCOS. Given the importance of telomere length in cellular proliferation, our findings provided novel insights into the pathophysiology of PCOS that abnormalities in telomere length possibly disturb folliculogenesis and subsequently result in PCOS.

Idiopathic nonobstructive azoospermia (INOA) is one of the most severe forms of male infertility, yet its pathophysiology remains unclear. WT1 (Wilms' tumor 1) regulates the polarity of Sertoli cells, thereby playing a critical, indirect role in spermatogenesis. Here, we evaluated WT1 gene variation associates with INOA by assessing its promoter and coding regions in 200 patients diagnosed with INOA and 200 proven-fertile men. Three novel variants in the WT1 coding region were detected only in INOA patients, including two synonymous variants and one missense variant, p.Phe435Leu (p.F435L), which was predicted to be deleterious to protein function. The results of dual luciferase reporter showed that the WT1 p.F435L variant decreases transcription of COL4A1 and WNT4 promoters through a dominant-negative effect. Furthermore, chromatin immunoprecipitation assays revealed that COL4A1 and WNT4 promoter is directly bound by wild-type WT1 protein, but not the p.F435L WT1 variant. Thus, we identified a novel functional variant of WT1 functionally associated with INOA. Mol. Reprod. Dev. 84: 222-228, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

In this retrospective study, we investigate the relationship between embryo arrest and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) during in vitro fertilization-embryo transfer (IVF-ET). In this study, 667 subjects were enrolled, including 330 patients with PCOS and 337 subjects without PCOS. The subjects underwent in vitro fertilization/intracytoplasmic sperm injection and embryo transfer (IVF/ICSI-ET) cycles at the Reproductive Medical Centre of Henan Provincial Hospital from January 2009 to December 2012. Four protocols were used to stimulate the ovaries, including long protocol, super-long down-regulation protocol, short protocol and antagonist protocol. Oocytes were retrieved using transvaginal ultrasound guidance. Pronuclei were checked on the next morning after IVF/ICSI. Cleavage stage embryo was assessed after 62-66 hours. Women with PCOS had significantly elevated body mass index, basal luteinizing hormone, estradiol and testosterone compared with normal women. Basal Follicle stimulating hormone level in PCOS patients was lower compared with that in control group. After IVF-ET, PCOS patients had more available oocytes than subjects in control group. PCOS patients had slightly lower fertilization rate than the controls in IVF cycles, but in ICSI cycles, fertilization rate in PCOS patients was significantly higher than that in controls. For either IVF or ICSI, the embryo arrest rate was not changed by PCOS. Moreover, there was no significant difference in embryo arrest rate between both groups adopting different stimulation protocols. Interestingly, embryo arrest rate was not correlated with testosterone for patients in PCOS group. The data indicated that patients with PCOS had successful early embryo arrest during IVF-ET.

Studies in bovine and porcine have indicated that melatonin (MT) could induce meiotic maturation of immature oocytes in vitro. The object of the current study was to investigate if MT could ameliorate human oocytes maturation during rescue in vitro maturation (IVM).Two hundred seventy eight germinal vesicle (GV) oocytes and 451 (MI) metaphase I oocytes were vitrified, thawed and then matured in vitro. All the oocytes were randomly allocated into six groups in which the oocytes were cultured in medium supplemented with different concentrations of MT (0, 10(-2), 1, 10(2), 10(4), 10(6) nM) and nuclear maturation was evaluated at 6 h, 12 h, 18 h, 24 h and 48 h of culture.The optimal MT concentration for both GV and MI oocytes was 1 nM. At 24 h of culture, nuclear maturation rate of MI oocytes cultured in 1 nM MT medium was significantly higher than other groups (P 0.05); Nuclear maturation rate of GV oocytes cultured in 1 nM MT medium was also significantly higher than the control group (P 0.05). On the other hand, decreased nuclear maturation rate was observed in the high MT concentration group (10(6) nM).The current study demonstrated that low concentration of exogenous MT could ameliorate nuclear maturation of human oocyte during rescue IVM, while high concentration of MT presented negative effects.

This study was designed to compare cumulus cell removal at different times and to evaluate their effects on embryo developmental potential and the outcomes of in vitro fertilization (IVF).We retrieved 606 IVF cycles with standard long down regulation protocol from January 2010 to December 2010. These cycles were divided into two groups: group A, 364 cycles with high risk of fertilization failure, whose cumulus cells were removed 4 h after short gamete coincubation; group B, 242 cycles as control, whose cumulus cells removal were performed 17 to 18 h after insemination. The epidemiological, clinical, laboratory factors and the outcomes of these cycles were analyzed.The available embryo rate of group A was significantly lower (P = 0.002). There were no significant differences in other laboratory parameters and outcomes between the two groups (P 0.05).For patients with high risk of fertilization failure, there could be a risk of compromising the rate of available embryos, if fertilization is judged by the presence of 2 PB by cumulus cell removal only 4 h post-insemination. Therefore, this strategy is not recommended to all IVF cycles and future studies are needed to confirm its reliability.