In contrast to the impact of elevated progesterone on endometrial receptivity, the data on whether increased progesterone levels affects the quality of embryos is still limited. This study retrospectively enrolled 4,236 fresh in vitro fertilization (IVF) cycles and sought to determine whether increased progesterone is associated with adverse outcomes with regard to top quality embryos (TQE). The results showed that the TQE rate significantly correlated with progesterone levels on the day of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) trigger (P = 0.009). Multivariate linear regression analysis of factors related to the TQE rate, in conventional IVF cycles, showed that the TQE rate was negatively associated with progesterone concentration on the day of hCG (OR was -1.658, 95% CI: -2.806 to -0.510, P = 0.005). When the serum progesterone level was within the interval 2.0–2.5 ng/ml, the TQE rate was significantly lower (P <0.05) than when the progesterone level was < 1.0 ng/ml; similar results were obtained for serum progesterone levels >2.5 ng/ml. Then, we choose a progesterone level at 1.5ng/ml, 2.0 ng/ml and 2.5 ng/ml as cut-off points to verify this result. We found that the TQE rate was significantly different (P <0.05) between serum progesterone levels < 2.0 ng/ml and >2.0 ng/ml. In conclusion, the results of this study clearly demonstrated a negative effect of elevated progesterone levels on the day of hCG trigger, on TQE rate, regardless of the basal FSH, the total gonadotropin, the age of the woman, or the time of ovarian stimulation. These data demonstrate that elevated progesterone levels (>2.0 ng/ml) before oocyte maturation were consistently detrimental to the oocyte.

The active moiety of clozapine, the prototypical antipsychotic drug, consists of clozapine and its major metabolite, N-desmethylclozapine (NDMC). Previous studies have suggested that NDMC may be more important than the patent compound itself for the improvement in cognition in patients with schizophrenia treated with clozapine. While the pharmacology of clozapine and NDMC are similar in most respects, NDMC has been shown to be an M 1 muscarinic receptor partial agonist whereas clozapine is an M 1 antagonist in vitro and in vivo. We hypothesized that NDMC may improve cognition by increasing dopamine (DA) and acetylcholine (ACh) release in medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) via direct stimulation of M 1 receptors, whereas both NDMC and clozapine itself would do so by other mechanisms as well, and that clozapine would inhibit the M1 agonist effect of NDMC. In the present study, using microdialysis in awake, freely moving rats, we found that NDMC at doses of 10 and 20, but not 5 mg/kg, significantly increased DA and ACh release in the mPFC and HIP, but not in the nucleus accumbens (NAC). The M 1 -preferring antagonist, telenzepine (3 mg/kg), completely blocked NDMC (10 mg/kg)-induced increases in cortical DA and ACh release. Clozapine (1.25 mg/kg), which by itself had no effect on DA or ACh release in the cortex, blocked NDMC (10 mg/kg)-induced ACh, but not DA, release in the mPFC. The 5-HT 1A receptor antagonist, WAY100635 (0.2 mg/kg) blocked NDMC (20 mg/kg)-induced cortical DA but not ACh release. These findings suggest that: (1) NDMC is an M 1 agonist while clozapine is an M 1 antagonist in vivo; (2) M 1 agonism of NDMC can contribute to the release of cortical ACh and DA release; (3) NDMC, because of its M 1 agonism, may more effectively treat the cognitive impairments observed in schizophrenia than clozapine itself; and (4) M 1 receptor agonism may be a valuable target for the development of drugs that can improve cognitive deficit in schizophrenia, and perhaps other neuropsychiatric disorders as well.

Background: The current study aimed to investigate the impact of asymptomatic or mild severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection on female fertility and laboratory and clinical outcomes in assisted reproductive technology (ART) treatments. Methods: Patients undergoing ART treatments in the Reproductive Medicine Center, Tongji Hospital, Wuhan, from May 2020 to February 2021 were enrolled. Seventy of them were positive for serum SARS-CoV-2 antibodies (IgG and/or IgM), and 3973 patients had negative results. Propensity score matching with a ratio of 1:3 was performed, and there were 65 females in the case group and 195 females in the control group. Findings: The ovarian reserves and ovarian responses between groups after matching were similar. The proportions of mature oocytes, damaged oocytes, fertilized oocytes, cleavage embryos, high-quality embryos, and available blastocysts were also similar, despite a slight decrease in the blastocyst formation rate in the case group. In addition, there were no significant differences in terms of the biochemical pregnancy rate, clinical pregnancy rate, early miscarriage rate, or implantation rate. Interpretation: There is no evidence that a history of asymptomatic or mild SARS-CoV-2 infection in females may negatively affect female fertility, embryo laboratory outcomes, or clinical outcomes in ART treatments.

The MT2 receptor is a principal type of G protein-coupled receptor that mainly mediates the effects of melatonin. Deficits of melatonin/MT2 signaling have been found in many neurological disorders, including Alzheimer's disease, the most common cause of dementia in the elderly, suggesting that preservation of the MT2 receptor may be beneficial to these neurological disorders. However, direct evidence linking the MT2 receptor to cognition-related synaptic plasticity remains to be established. Here, we report that the MT2 receptor, but not the MT1 receptor, is essential for axonogenesis both in vitro and in vivo. We find that axon formation is retarded in MT2 receptor knockout mice, MT2-shRNA electroporated brain slices or primary neurons treated with an MT2 receptor selective antagonist. Activation of the MT2 receptor promotes axonogenesis that is associated with an enhancement in excitatory synaptic transmission in central neurons. The signaling components downstream of the MT2 receptor consist of the Akt/GSK-3β/CRMP-2 cascade. The MT2 receptor C-terminal motif binds to Akt directly. Either inhibition of the MT2 receptor or disruption of MT2 receptor-Akt binding reduces axonogenesis and synaptic transmission. Our data suggest that the MT2 receptor activates Akt/GSK-3β/CRMP-2 signaling and is necessary and sufficient to mediate functional axonogenesis and synaptic formation in central neurons. Synaptic circuits are established at the sites of axon-dendritic, axon-somatic or axon-axonal contact, in which functional axonogenesis is a critical step. 1 Axonogenesis can be regulated by many intracellular signals that involve cytoskeletal rearrangements, 2 local protein degradation, 3 as well as diffusional barriers. 4 Additionally, several extracellular neurotrophic factors and hormones have also been shown to have a role in axon guidance and synaptic formation in central neurons. 5,6 To date, the role of melatonin and its receptors in axonogenesis remains unclear. Most of the biological functions of melatonin are mediated by its two receptors, MT1 and MT2 receptors, both of them belong to the G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) subfamily and are widely expressed throughout the central nervous system (CNS). 7 Activation of the MT2 receptor in response to melatonin is critical for controlling circadian rhythms 7 and regulation of slow wave sleep. 8,9 Early studies have shown that activation of the MT2 receptor in the retina reduces the release of dopamine, while dopamine inhibits growth cone motility and neurite outgrowth during embryonic development, 10,11 suggesting the involvement of the MT2 receptor in functional axonogenesis. In mutant mice with deficient expression of the MT2 gene, the induction of long-term potentiation (LTP) of excitatory synaptic transmission is impaired, and this impairment is closely related to deficits in learning. 12 In the hippocampus, the MT2 receptor inhibits GABA A receptor-mediated current, 13 which is implicated in the synaptic transmission. In Alzheimer's disease, expression of the MT...

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Object To explore the mechanisms of ovarian aging, we performed overall analysis on the age-related alterations of gene expression profiles in mouse germinal vesicle (GV) stage oocytes by means of single-cell RNA-sequencing method (scRNA-seq). Methods Two age groups (5-week-old and 32-week-old) female KM mice were used as young and old models. Subsequently, GV oocytes were collected for scRNA-seq. The bioinformatics was performed to analyze and compare the differences of gene expression profile between GV oocytes of young and old mice. Results The analysis of scRNA-seq data showed that there were 624 differential expressed genes (DEGs) between two age groups of mouse GV stage oocytes. Four hundred forty-nine DEGs were up-regulated while 175 DEGs were down-regulated in the GV oocytes of the old group. KEGG pathway analysis revealed that the genes involved in mitochondrial function including oxidative phosphorylation and ATP production pathway were significantly down-regulated in GV oocytes of 32-week-old mice, especially the mitochondrial encoded NADH dehydrogenase (mt-Nd), including mt-Nd2, mt-Nd3, mt-Nd4, mt-Nd4L and mt-Nd5. Analysis of DEGs revealed that endoplasmic reticulum stress-related genes including AdipoR2, IRAK-1, RCAN1 and MsrB1 were significantly down-regulated in GV oocytes of 32-week-old mice. Also, analysis of DEGs demonstrated that anti-oxidation-related genes including Erbb3、Rcan1、Gsto2 and Msrb1 were significantly down-regulated in GV oocytes of old group. Conclusion The disorder of mitochondrial function, endoplasmic reticulum stress and the reduced antioxidant capability might be involved in the progression of oocyte aging. Especially, the down regulation of mitochondrial encoded subunits of respiratory chain complexes might play critical roles in the relevant mechanisms. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s13048-019-0529-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Fertility preservation has received unprecedented attention nowadays. In addition to cryopreservation and re-implantation of embryos, oocytes, and ovarian tissue pieces, in vitro culture system for follicles/oocytes has been considered as an alternative strategy for fertility preservation. Since the metabolic dynamics and required nutrients are not entirely the same in different stages of follicular development, optimization of each culture step is needed. In this paper, literature regarding culture conditions in three steps were analyzed. Known additives in activation stage included 740Y-P, bpV(HOpic), follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), human serum albumin (HSA), ITS, growth differentiation factor 9 (GDF9), bone morphogenetic protein 15 (BMP15), and cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP), with different degrees of activation promotion and potential detrimental effect on DNA integrity. For isolated follicles growth stage, actin A, FSH, basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), estradiol were proved to improve development or proliferation. As for maturation, addition of growth hormone, melatonin, C-type natriuretic peptide (CNP), GDF9, cilostamide, or forskolin helped to regulate maturation rate or improve oocyte quality. Based on previous sequential culture system for human follicles, optimization is needed to achieve higher maturation rate and better oocyte quality, pursuant to current review, which demonstrated the effects of various additives on different stages.