Skip Navigation



Hum. Reprod. Advance Access published online on January 31, 2006
Human Reproduction, doi:10.1093/humrep/dei498
This Article
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF ) Freely available
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
21/6/1359    most recent
dei498v1
Right arrow Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when eLetters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Roig, I.
Right arrow Articles by Garcia, M.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Roig, I.
Right arrow Articles by Garcia, M.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org
Received October 6, 2005
Revised December 13, 2005
Accepted December 21, 2005

Article

Human fetal ovarian culture permits meiotic progression and chromosome pairing process

I. Roig 1, R. Garcia 1, P. Robles 1, R. Cortvrindt 2, J. Egozcue 1, J. Smitz 2, and Montserrat Garcia 1 *

1 Departament de Biologia Cel·lular, Fisiologia i Immunologia, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Spain
2 Follicle Biology Laboratory, Academisch Ziekenhuis van de Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Montserrat Garcia, E-mail: montserrat.garcia.caldes{at}uab.es


  Abstract

BACKGROUND: The female meiotic process seems to be crucial for aneuploidy in humans. The first stages of mammalian female meiosis take place during the fetal period. Therefore, only little is known about female meiosis. The goal of this study was to develop a culture technique that permits human oocytes to progress through meiotic prophase, to provide a system to study human female meiosis. METHOD: Fetal ovaries from four cases were cultured up to 35 days in {alpha}-minimal essential medium, 2% human serum albumin, 5 µg/ml insulin, 5 µg/ml transferrin, 5 ng/ml selenium and 100 IU/ml penicillin-100 µg/ml streptomycin. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Although ovarian response to culture conditions varied, human oocytes survived in vitro up to 5 weeks. In three cases, we observed significant variation in stages of meiosis among the cultures. The homologous chromosome pairing process was studied for the first time in cultured oocytes, and the results suggested that the pairing process was completed following the same features described previously for euploid oocytes, as followed by the chromosome-13 pairing process and synaptone-mal complex formation. Although a higher proportion of degenerated oocytes were observed as culture time increased, we also observed oogonial entrance to meiotic prophase.

Keywords: fetal development/human oocytes/meiosis/ovarian culture/synapsis.
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer:
Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.