Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a common frequent endocrine disorder among women of reproductive age. Although assisted reproductive techniques (ARTs) are used to address subfertility in PCOS women, their effectiveness is not clear. Our aim was to compare transcriptomic profiles of oocytes and cumulus cells (CCs) between women with and without PCOS, and assess the effectiveness of ARTs in treating PCOS patients. We collected oocytes and CCs from 16 patients with and without PCOS patients to categorize them into 6 groups according to oocyte nuclear maturation. Transcriptional gene expression of oocyte and CCs was determined via single-cell RNA sequencing. The ratio of fertilization and cleavage was higher in PCOS patients than in non-PCOS patients undergoing ARTs, and there was no difference in the number of high-quality embryos between the groups. Differentially expressed genes including PPP2R1A, PDGFRA, EGFR, GJA1, PTGS2, TNFAIP6, TGF-β1, CAV1, INHBB et al. were investigated as potential causes of PCOS oocytes and CCs disorder at early stages, but their expression returned to the normal level at the metaphase II (MII) stage via ARTs. In conclusion, ARTs can improve the quality of cumulus-oocyte complex (COC) and increase the ratio of fertilization and cleavage in PCOS women.

Cost-effective, stable, and highly efficient heterogeneous catalyst is the key challenge for wastewater treatment based on Fenton-like advanced oxidation processes. Perovskite oxides offer new opportunities because of their versatile compositions and flexible physiochemical properties. Herein, a new strategy is proposed that is different from the frequently used alien-metal doping, to tune surface properties of perovskite oxides by nanocompositing perovskite with inert oxide, resulting in improved activity and stability for catalytic oxidation. By in situ modification of LaFeO 3 with inert La 2 O 3 oxide through one-pot synthesis, several important surface properties such as surface defects, H 2 O 2 adsorption capacity, Fe 2+ concentration, and chargetransfer rate were improved, as well as resistance against iron leaching. In performance evaluation, among the various materials, La 1.15 FeO 3 (L 1.15 FO) composite shows the highest Fenton activity (0.0402 min −1 ) for activating H 2 O 2 to oxidize methyl orange, 2.5 times that of the pristine LaFeO 3 . Notably, in situ electron paramagnetic resonance analysis and radical scavenging tests unveil a faster generation of singlet oxygen as the dominant reactive species over L 1.15 FO, consequently a novel non-radical activation mechanism is proposed. Such improved performance is assigned to the strong coupling effect between the nanosized LaFeO 3 and La 2 O 3 in the hybrids, which fine-tune the surface properties of LaFeO 3 perovskite as superior Fenton catalysts.

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