No abstract

Absolute uterine factor infertility affects 3-5% of the general population, and unfortunately this condition is untreatable. There are some available options, including surrogacy or adoption, but neither of these suits each and every woman who desires to have her own genetic child. With recent advances in surgery and transplant immunology, uterus transplantation may be a source of hope for these women with uterine infertility. In the last decade, a number of animal species including rats, mice, rabbits, pigs, sheep, and primates have been used as experimental models, and pregnancies were achieved in some of these. Human data consist of 11 subjects yielding positive pregnancy results with no live births in the second trial from Turkey and, more fortunately, live births from the latest trial from Sweden. In the light of all these studies, uterus transplantation has been proven to be a viable option for women with uterine factor infertility.

This study aimed to evaluate the effect of artificial oocyte activation (AOA) by calcium ionophore after intracytoplasmic morphologically selected sperm injection (IMSI) on fertilization, cleavage rate and embryo quality. A total of 194 oocytes from 21 cycles from women with a history of low fertilization rate accompanying teratozoospermia were enrolled over a 3-month period. Mature oocytes from each patient were randomly allocated into two groups after IMSI. In the study group, half of the patients' oocytes (n = 97) were exposed to AOA, and in the control group (n = 97), AOA was not applied. The mean number of mature oocytes, fertilization and cleavage rates were similar between the study and control groups (p > 0.05 for each). However, fertilized oocytes of the AOA group were less likely to produce top quality embryos when calculated per fertilized oocyte (28/80; 35.0% versus 38/71; 53.5%, respectively; p = 0.024) and also per cycle (13/21; 61.9% versus 20/21; 95.24%, respectively; p = 0.006). Our study indicates that AOA may not improve fertilization rates after IMSI and may even reduce the ability of a successfully fertilized oocyte to develop into a top quality embryo. AOA should, therefore, be applied to cases with a defined oocyte activating deficiency.

No abstract

While the correlation between the CAG repeat length of the androgen receptor (AR) gene and idiopathic male infertility is still unclear, ethnic background of the population studied may play an important role in this association. The objective of this study was to determine whether changes in the CAG repeat length are associated with spermatogenic defects in Turkish infertile men. Reproductive hormone concentrations and the CAG repeat length in exon 1 of the AR gene in 47 idiopathic infertile men and 32 fertile controls were analyzed. The mean serum luteinising hormone (LH) and follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) levels were significantly higher in the infertile group than those of the control group (p < 0.0001 for both comparisons), whereas the mean serum testosterone level in the infertile group did not differ significantly from that in the control group (p = 0.16). The mean CAG repeat length of the AR gene in the infertile group did not differ significantly from that in the control group (22.28 ± 0.37 vs 22.41 ± 0.54, respectively; p = 0.84). In addition, the frequency of having a CAG repeat number ( 24) was also comparable between the infertile patients and fertile controls (31.9% vs 40.6%, respectively; p = 0.21). In conclusion, reproductive hormones with elevated LH and FSH, and normal or low testosterone levels were suggestive of partial impairment of testicular function. However, no statistically significant relationship between the length of the CAG repeat and idiopathic impaired sperm production was observed in the Turkish population studied. These results support the findings of previously published European studies, but are contrary to the findings from Caucasian and North American population studies. Thus, ethnicity and genetic backgrounds seem to be important in this association, and studies from a variety of different ethnic and genetic backgrounds using