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Publications (38)
BACKGROUND: The role of growth hormone (GH) in female reproduction has become a topic of increasing interest over the last decade. The replacement of GH for ovulation induction in women with hypopituitarism remains controversial. The role of GH in the human endometrium is still largely unknown. To the best of our knowledge, this study represents th...
Leptin, the product of the ob gene, is a small peptide molecule synthesized by white adipocytes with an important role in the regulation of body fat and food intake. Leptin and leptin receptor mRNA were first detected in the brain and hypothalamus but now their ubiquitous presence has been demonstrated. Leptin receptor signal transduction involves...
Externalization of phosphatidylserine (EPS) occurs in apoptotic-like spermatozoa and could be used to remove them from sperm preparations to enhance sperm quality for assisted medical procreation. We first characterized EPS in sperms from infertile patients in terms of frequency of EPS spermatozoa as well as localization of phosphatidylserine (PS)...
Contraceptive use is a complex issue and several studies have been conducted in an effort to understand user behaviour. It is of interest to explore the representations of professionals who give advice on contraception, since their views could have an impact on contraceptive use.
Individual in-depth interviews of 65 healthcare professionals likely...
Leptin is a metabolic signal to the reproductive axis, where it increases the plasma levels of luteinising hormone (LH) and follicle stimulating hormone (FSH). Since the placental regulation of human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG) mimics that of the pituitary LH, we undertook this study to see if leptin could be involved in the secretion and synthes...
Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) has been identified as an endothelium-specific mitogen and inducer of angiogenesis and endothelial cell survival. Leptin and hCG have also been suggested as possible regulators of angiogenesis in various models. In-vivo and in-vitro assays revealed that leptin has an angiogenic activity and that the vascula...
To compare changes in uterine contraction (UC) frequency occurring after ovulation in the menstrual cycle and in IVF and to clarify UC anomalies encountered in IVF.
Prospective crossover trial.
University infertility clinic.
Six women seeking IVF for male factor infertility having regular menstrual cycles were studied during the menstrual cycle and...
Mammalian sperm must undergo a process known as capacitation before fertilization can take place. A key intracellular event that occurs during capacitation is protein tyrosine phosphorylation. The objective of this study was to investigate and visualize protein tyrosine phosphorylation patterns in human sperm during capacitation and interaction wit...
Infertility is a fascinating area where multiple interactions between reproductive medecine and sexuality take place. Some sexual dysfunctions may interfere with fertility and may be under some circumstances the only cause of infertility. Moreover, fertility workup and treatment may even cause sexual dysfunctions. Therefore, it is important to take...
Premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), also referred to as premenstrual syndrome (PMS), is a recurrent luteal-phase condition involving regular occurrence, prior to the onset of menstrual bleeding, of a cluster of symptoms of sufficient severity to result in the deterioration of interpersonal relationships and normal activity. Several treatment op...
To determine if hydrosalpinx fluid affects trophoblastic metalloproteinases (MMPs) secretion.
Measurement of the effect of hydrosalpinx and peritoneal fluids (as controls) added to the medium on the MMPs secreted by cytotrophoblastic cells.
Academic research center.
Five samples of hydrosalpinx fluid were obtained at the time of ovocyte retrieval....
Patients with hydrosalpinges show a decrease of both fertility and clinical outcome of IVF and embryo transfer treatment.
Several reports have demonstrated the negative effects of hydrosalpinx fluid (HSF) on embryo development and implantation.
The aim of this study was to determine whether human HSF, collected from infertile patients, might exhibi...
Gonadotrophin-releasing hormone (GnRH) is an important factor in the regulation of the synthesis and secretion of gonadotrophins from the pituitary gland. An isoform of this decapeptide, GnRH-II, with an amino acid sequence 70% homologous to GnRH-I, has been recently described. Since the physiological effects of GnRH-II are not yet known, we undert...
A well-documented case of non-mosaic Turner syndrome, with spontaneous pubertal development and ovulatory cycles is reported. Mosaicism could be excluded both by karyotyping of 172 metaphases of blood lymphocytes and fibroblasts, and by fluorescence in situ hybridization, using an X-centromeric probe, in 200 blood lymphocyte nuclei. This Turner syn...
Blepharophimosis-ptosis-epicanthus syndrome (BPES) is a rare genetic condition occurring sporadically and transmitted by autosomal dominant inheritance. Type I BPES is associated with a high incidence of menstrual irregularities and infertility. Its clinical presentation is attributed to either an ovarian resistance to gonadotropins or to a true pr...
To investigate the role of leptin during pregnancy, we assessed leptin production by pure cultured human cytotrophoblastic cells (CTB), its regulation by cytokines and 17beta-oestradiol and its effects on human chorionic gonadotrophin (HCG) secretion. Purified CTB from first trimester placenta were incubated in duplicates in the presence or absence...
The aim of this study was to determine the effects of tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF), interleukin-1 alpha (IL-1alpha), macrophage colony-stimulating factor (MCSF) and transforming growth factor beta (TGFbeta) on the secretion of matrix metalloproteinases (MMP), human chorionic gonadotrophin (HCG) and fetal fibronectin (fFN) by purified first tr...
When using a long protocol with cycle day 23 gonadotrophin-releasing hormone agonists (GnRH-a) administration, an elevated estradiol level or a missed period 10-14 days after initiating pituitary downregulation should alert the physician to the possibility of a pregnancy. We report 4 pregnancies occurring during pituitary downregulation with Tripto...
The objective of this study was to evaluate the bioactivity of human chorionic gonadotrophin (HCG) during first trimester pregnancy. This was done by means of a retrospective analysis of sera from patients with first trimester normal intrauterine and ectopic pregnancies. Serum samples were obtained from 38 women with amenorrhoea of <10 weeks. From...
The success of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) warrants further study on the role of paternal factors in early human embryogenesis. To investigate whether poor sperm parameters can influence embryo development, we examined the development of ICSI-fertilized embryos to the blastocyst stage. We present results of blastocyst development from s...
The disappearance kinetic of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) follows a biexponential decay with a rapid initial fall followed later by a slow disappearance. This kinetic is characterised by two half-lives: an early and a late. The objective of this study was to determine if and which half-life could be used clinically to detect persistent tropho...
Currently available hormonal contraception in Switzerland includes estroprogestogen pills, progestogen-only pills, injectable progestogens, progestogen-IUDs and emergency estroprogestogen contraceptive pills. The estrogen used in hormonal contraception is ethinylestradiol, except for one out of 32 pills which contains mestranol. The types of proges...
Improved embryo culture protocols now render more feasible the possibility of obtaining human blastocysts after in-vitro fertilization.
In this study we present: (i) results of blastocyst development from supernumerary embryos after co-culture on green monkey
kidney epithelial cells and (ii) pregnancy rates after transfer of frozen blastocysts. In...
In-vitro fertilization (IVF) embryos are selected for transfer on the basis of morphology and rate of development. However, when a number of embryos have similar characteristics, the selection of the best embryos is left to chance. Recently, we proposed a simple, novel method to overcome this problem, based on pre-selection of embryos cleaving earl...
The effect of angiotensin II (ANG II) on cytosolic free Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]i) was studied in cultured neonatal rat ventricular myocytes. [Ca2+]i was estimated in groups of one to three cells by dual-wavelength microfluorometry or in cell populations using conventional fluorometry. ANG II (10(-8) M) produced an acute short-lived increase over...
In rat aortic smooth muscle cells, vasopressin (AVP) induces prostacyclin (PGI2) production, probably as the consequence of phospholipase C activation. Our study analyzes the effects of phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA)-induced protein kinase C (PKC) activation on AVP-induced inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate formation, cytosolic free Ca2+ concentra...
Differences in responsiveness of various vascular beds to pressor hormones have been reported. In our study, we have examined the effects of angiotensin II (Ang II) and vasopressin (AVP) on cytosolic free Ca2+ concentration [( Ca2+]c), protein kinase C (PKC) activity, and prostacyclin (PGI2) production in cultured aortic and mesenteric smooth muscl...
