In order to determine the impact of maternal metabolic state on oocyte development in women undergoing in vitro fertilization/intracytoplasmic sperm injection (IVF/ICSI), we retrospectively analyzed a cohort of women with PCOS undergoing IVF/ICSI from 2008-2009 in a university-based fertility center. We determined that women with PCOS and obesity have smaller oocytes compared to controls, and that when further subdivided by BMI, both PCOS and obesity influence oocyte size independent of one another.

These results suggest for the first time that Adipoq signaling may play an important role in preimplantation embryo development and uterine receptivity by autocrine and paracrine methods in the mouse. Implantation failures and pregnancy loss, specifically those experienced in women with maternal metabolic conditions such as diabetes, obesity and PCOS, may be the result of aberrant Adipoq and AdipoR1 and AdipoR2 expression and suboptimal decidualization in the uterus.

Obesity is a pandemic and is associated with multiple medical problems including subfertility. Male obesity has been associated with altered semen parameters and reproductive hormonal levels, including a reduced testosterone:estradiol (T:E₂) ratio. Treatment methods employed for obesity-related male subfertility include gonadotropin administration, weight loss, and aromatase inhibitors. Letrozole is a highly effective nonsteroidal aromatase inhibitor that has been used to treat male subfertility in several case series with promising results. Adequately designed randomized controlled studies are needed to produce evidence-based data on the role of aromatase inhibitors in male subfertility management and evaluate the side-effect profile.

Decondensation of compact and inactive sperm chromatin by egg cytoplasm at fertilization is necessary to convert the male germ cell chromatin to an active somatic form. We studied decondensation of sea urchin sperm nuclei in a cell-free extract of sea urchin eggs to define conditions promoting decondensation. We find that egg cytosol specifically phosphorylates two sperm-specific (Sp) histones in vitro in the same regions as in vivo. This activity is blocked by olomoucine, an inhibitor of cdc2-like kinases, but not by chelerythrine, an inhibitor of protein kinase C (PKC). PKC phosphorylates and solubilizes the sperm nuclear lamina, one requirement for decondensation. Olomoucine, which does not inhibit lamina removal, blocks sperm nuclear decondensation in the same concentration range over which it is effective in blocking Sp histone phosphorylation. In a system free of other soluble proteins, neither PKC nor cdc2 alone elicit sperm chromatin decondensation, but the two act synergistically to decondense sperm nuclei. We conclude that two kinases activities are sufficient for sea urchin male pronuclear decondensation in vitro, a lamin kinase (PKC) and a cdc2-like Sp histone kinase.

This essay looks at the historical significance of the APS Classic Paper: Allen E, Doisy EA. The induction of a sexually mature condition in immature females by injection of the ovarian follicular hormone.