Reproduction Abstracts

Introduction: Bi-directional communication between the oocyte and cumulus cells (CCs) is essential for the production of competent oocytes. Previous studies analyzed the relative transcript abundance in oocytes from small follicles (SF) and medium follicles (MF) to determinate the likely use of oocytes from SF in artificial reproductive techniques. The aim of this study was to examine the relative transcript abundance of CCs from cumulus–oocyte complexes (COCs) from SF an...

Introduction: Billions of sperm are deposited in female tract during porcine insemination but only a few thousands are able to reach the oviduct to facilitate fertilization. It has been reported that some of the sperm membrane proteins involved in fertilization are secreted by epididymis (i.e. SPAM-1, CRISP, and MFGE8). It was observed that the mouse oviduct is able to secrete some of these proteins. Some of them are implicated in fertilization since sperm fertility of KO mice...