Reproduction Abstracts

Introduction: This work adapts a novel ovary culture technique, devised by De Felici’s group, for assessing the ovotoxicity of two chemotherapeutic drugs, cisplatin and doxorubicin. Previous work from our laboratory used cultures of intact neonatal ovaries to determine the effects of the two drugs, showing that both cisplatin and doxorubicin are moderately ovotoxic.Methods: Here, ovaries collected from newborn WT mice were cultured as by De Felici. ...

Introduction: The endometrium is one of the few adult tissues that heals repeatedly without scarring. On a monthly basis the endometrium undergoes cyclical episodes of proliferation, degeneration, tissue repair and remodelling in response to the ‘injury’ inflicted on it during menstruation. In women, endometrial shedding (menses) is the culmination of a cascade of inflammatory signals between uterine stromal cells and immune cells both of which have key roles in endo...

A significant proportion of IVF treatments are unsuccessful due to defects in implantation. The first stage of implantation is an attachment interaction between the trophectoderm (TE) of the blastocyst-stage embryo and the uterine luminal epithelium (LE). Endocrine signalling from the corpus luteum and paracrine signalling from uterine glands, uterine stroma and the embryo promotes LE receptivity. To investigate the LE–TE interaction we have developed an in vitro...

Introduction: Environmental chemicals (ECs) are associated with an increased incidence of testicular cancer and reduced sperm quality. Regional differences are thought to reflect different levels of EC exposure. Since the dog is a sentinel of human exposure, we hypothesised that geographical variation in testicular chemical profiles may be associated with altered reproductive development and/or function.Methods: Canine adult testes (routine castrations) ...

Globally, malnutrition is the single greatest threat to public health. Maternal malnutrition during pregnancy is detrimental to foetal development and increases the risk of many chronic diseases in later life. Neurological consequences include increased risk of schizophrenia and abnormal anxiety-related behaviour. Previous studies have shown that maternal protein restriction has a negative effect on foetal brain development in vivo and we previously showed an effect o...