The survival, proliferation, and differentiation of primordial germ cells in the mammalian embryo is regulated by a complex cocktail of growth factors and interactions with surrounding somatic cells, which together form a microenvironment known as the germ cell niche. Extensive ins ...

Oocyte maturation is a critical component of in vitro embryo production. If not carried out in a precise manner under optimal conditions, subsequent fertilization and embryo development will be compromised. Here, we describe collection and in vitro maturation procedures in swine that m ...

Female fertility is critically influenced by two events affecting oocytes during meiotic prophase progression: meiotic recombination between homologous chromosomes; and a major oocyte loss. It is technically challenging to examine these events, which take place in fetal and neo ...

Emerging evidence from these studies suggested that the male germ cell transcriptome is more complex than previously envisioned. In addition to protein-coding genes, the transcriptome also encodes a significant number of nonprotein-coding transcripts. These noncoding (nc) RN ...

Follicular development commences with the formation of primordial follicles, which begins with the differentiation of pluripotent ovarian somatic cells into early granulosa cells and their apposition to the oocytes in the egg nest. The process of primordial follicle morphogene ...

N-alpha protein acetylation, catalyzed by N-alpha acetyltransferase complex, is a common protein �modification process in eukaryotic cells. Despite its widespread occurrence, the biological significance of this modification process is still unclear. We recently discove ...

In the past decade, the advent of microarray technologies has allowed functional genomic studies of male germ cell development, resulting in the identification of genes governing various processes. A major limitation with conventional gene expression microarray is that results o ...

Spermatogenesis comprises a complex succession of steps of mitosis, meiosis, and differentiation, starting with the commitment of diploid spermatogonial stem cells to differentiate and ending with the formation of haploid spermatozoa. Rodent models have been routinely used to s ...

Seminiferous tubules of the male testis contain somatic cells (Sertoli and Leydig cells) and germ cells at different stages of spermatogenesis (spermatogonia, spermatocytes and spermatids). Germ cells at different stages of differentiation migrate toward the central lumen via c ...

Mammalian spermatogenesis is a process whereby male germ-line stem cells (spermatogonial stem cells) divide and differentiate into sperm. Although a great deal of progress has been made in the isolation and characterization of spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) in rodents, little is kn ...

Limited understanding of the mechanisms underlying self-renewal and differentiation of spermatogonial stem cells hampers our ability to develop new therapeutic and contraceptive approaches. Mouse models of spermatogonial stem cell development are key to developing new in ...

In recent years, an increasing interest has emerged at understanding how spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) arise from their precursor cells, the gonocytes. The identification of factors acting directly on gonocytes rather than on the surrounding somatic cells and the study of genes and si ...

Gonadal sex differentiation is an important developmental process, in which a bipotential primordial gonad undergoes two distinct pathways, i.e., testicular and ovarian differentiation, dependent on its genetic sex. Techniques of isolating fetal gonads at various developme ...

Cryptorchidism or undescended testis is the most frequent congenital abnormality in newborn boys. The process of testicular descent to the scrotum is controlled by hormones produced in Leydig cells, insulin-like3, and androgens. Variation in genetic and environmental factors mi ...

DNA methylation is an important epigenetic modification that regulates development and plays a role in the pathophysiology of many diseases. It is dynamically changed during germline development. Methylated DNA immunoprecipitation (MeDIP) is an efficient, cost-effective m ...

Closed ampoule isothermal microcalorimetry (IMC) is a simple, powerful, nondestructive, and convenient technique that allows continuous, real-time detection and evaluation of cultured cell activity and responses. At a selected set temperature, IMC measures the heat flow betwe ...

The measurement of cell viability plays a fundamental role in all forms of cell culture. Sometimes it is the main purpose of the experiment, such as in toxicity assays. Alternatively, cell viability can be used to �correlate cell behaviour to cell number, providing a more accurate picture of, for exa ...

Bioluminescence from murine stem cells tagged with the luciferase gene reporter and distributed within three-dimensional scaffolds of two different materials is quantified in vitro and in vivo. The luminescence emitted from cells adhering to the scaffolds tested is monitored non ...

The number of techniques to identify, quantify and characterise cell death is rapidly increasing as more is known about the complex mechanisms underlying this process. However, most of these techniques are invasive and require preparation steps such as cell fixation, staining or protein ...

Zn2+ ions are a critical component of cellular machinery. The ion is required for the function of many cell components crucial to survival, such as transcription factors, protein synthetic machinery, metabolic enzymes, hormone packaging, among other roles. In stark contrast to the cells’ n ...