Molecular Reproduction and Development 

About: Molecular Reproduction and Development is an academic journal published by Wiley. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Sperm & Oocyte. It has an ISSN identifier of 1040-452X. Over the lifetime, 4879 publications have been published receiving 186386 citations. The journal is also known as: Molecular reproduction & development.

The ImageJ ecosystem: An open platform for biomedical image analysis

Abstract: Technology in microscopy advances rapidly, enabling increasingly affordable, faster, and more precise quantitative biomedical imaging, which necessitates correspondingly more-advanced image processing and analysis techniques. A wide range of software is available-from commercial to academic, special-purpose to Swiss army knife, small to large-but a key characteristic of software that is suitable for scientific inquiry is its accessibility. Open-source software is ideal for scientific endeavors because it can be freely inspected, modified, and redistributed; in particular, the open-software platform ImageJ has had a huge impact on the life sciences, and continues to do so. From its inception, ImageJ has grown significantly due largely to being freely available and its vibrant and helpful user community. Scientists as diverse as interested hobbyists, technical assistants, students, scientific staff, and advanced biology researchers use ImageJ on a daily basis, and exchange knowledge via its dedicated mailing list. Uses of ImageJ range from data visualization and teaching to advanced image processing and statistical analysis. The software's extensibility continues to attract biologists at all career stages as well as computer scientists who wish to effectively implement specific image-processing algorithms. In this review, we use the ImageJ project as a case study of how open-source software fosters its suites of software tools, making multitudes of image-analysis technology easily accessible to the scientific community. We specifically explore what makes ImageJ so popular, how it impacts the life sciences, how it inspires other projects, and how it is self-influenced by coevolving projects within the ImageJ ecosystem.

Open Pulled Straw (OPS) vitrification: a new way to reduce cryoinjuries of bovine ova and embryos.

Abstract: Although cryopreservation of certain mammalian embryos is now a routine procedure, considerable differences of efficiency exist depending on stage, species and origin (in vivo or in vitro produced). Factors that are suspected to cause most of these differences are the amount of the intracellular lipid droplets and the different microtubular structure leading to chilling injury as well as the volume/surface ratio influencing the penetration of cryoprotectants. A new approach, the Open Pulled Straw (OPS) method, which renders very high cooling and warming rates (over 20,000°C/min) and short contact with concentrated cryoprotective additives (less than 30 sec over −180°C) offers a possibility to circumvent chilling injury and to decrease toxic and osmotic damage. In this paper we report the vitrification by the OPS method of in vitro produced bovine embryos at various stages of development. Embryos cryopreserved from Day 3 to Day 7 (Day 0 = day of fertilization) exhibited development into blastocysts at rates equivalent to those of control embryos; even those cryopreserved on Day 1 or 2 exhibited only somewhat reduced survival. Eighty-one percent of Day 8 hatched blastocysts also survived the procedure. The method was also successfully used for bovine oocytes; of 184 vitrified oocytes, 25% developed into blastocysts after fertilization and culture for 7 days. Pregnancies were achieved following transfer after vitrification at both the oocyte and blastocyst stage. The OPS vitrification offers a new way to solve basic problems of reproductive cryobiology and may have practical impact on animal biotechnology and human assisted reproduction. Mol. Reprod. Dev. 51:53–58, 1998. © 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Transition from maternal to embryonic control in early mammalian development: a comparison of several species.

Abstract: La presente revue considere les donnees recentes concernant les produits impliques dans l'activation du genome de l'embryon chez plusieurs especes

Consequences of bovine oocyte maturation, fertilization or early embryo development in vitro versus in vivo: implications for blastocyst yield and blastocyst quality.

Abstract: The aim of this study is to examine the effect of bovine oocyte maturation, fertilization or culture in vivo or in vitro on the proportion of oocytes reaching the blastocyst stage, and on blastocyst quality as measured by survival following vitrification. In Experiment 1, 4 groups of oocytes were used: (1) immature oocytes from 2-6 mm follicles; (2) immature oocytes from > 6 mm follicles; (3) immature oocytes recovered in vivo just before the LH surge; and (4) in vivo matured oocytes. Significantly more blastocysts developed from oocytes matured in vivo than those recovered just before the LH surge or than oocytes from 2-6 mm follicles. Results from > 6 mm follicles were intermediate. All blastocysts had low survival following vitrification. In Experiment 2, in vivo matured oocytes were either (1) fertilized in vitro or (2) fertilized in vivo by artificial insemination and the resulting presumptive zygotes recovered on day 1. Both groups were then cultured in vitro. In vivo fertilized oocytes had a significantly higher blastocyst yield than those fertilized in vitro. Blastocyst quality was similar between the groups. Both groups had low survival following vitrification. In Experiment 3a, presumptive zygotes produced by in vitro maturation (IVM)/fertilization (IVF) were cultured either in vitro in synthetic oviduct fluid, or in vivo in the ewe oviduct. In Experiment 3b, in vivo matured/in vivo fertilized zygotes were either surgically recovered on day 1 and cultured in vitro in synthetic oviduct fluid, or were nonsurgically recovered on day 7. There was no difference in blastocyst yields between groups of zygotes originating from the same source (in vivo or in vitro fertilization) irrespective of whether culture took place in vivo or in vitro. However, there was a dramatic effect on blastocyst quality with those blastocysts produced following in vivo culture surviving vitrification at significantly higher rates than their in vitro cultured counterparts. Collectively, these results indicate that the intrinsic quality of the oocyte is the main factor affecting blastocyst yields, while the conditions of embryo culture have a crucial role in determining blastocyst quality.

The bone morphogenetic protein family and osteogenesis.

Abstract: The BMPs (bone morphogenetic proteins) are a group of related proteins originally identified by their presence in bone-inductive extracts of demineralized bone. By molecular cloning, at least six related members of this family have been identified and are called BMP-2 through BMP-7. These molecules are part of the TGF-beta superfamily, based on primary amino acid sequence homology, including the absolute conservation of seven cysteine residues between the TGF-betas and the BMPs. The BMPs can be divided into subgroups with BMP-2 and BMP-4 being 92% identical, and BMP-5, BMP-6, and BMP-7 being an average of about 90% identical. To examine the individual activities of these molecules, we are producing each BMP in a mammalian expression system. In this system, each BMP is synthesized as a precursor peptide, which is glycosylated, processed to the mature peptide, and secreted as a homodimer. These reagents have been used to demonstrate that single molecules, such as BMP-2, are capable of inducing the formation of new cartilage and bone when implanted ectopically in a rodent assay system. Whether each of the BMPs possesses the same inductive activities in an animal is the subject of ongoing research. Based on the chondrogenic and osteogenic abilities of the BMPs in the adult animal, the expression of the mRNAs for the BMPs has been examined in the development of the embryonic skeleton by in situ hybridization. These studies demonstrate that the BMP mRNAs are spatially and temporally expressed appropriately for the proteins involved in the induction and development of cartilage and bone in the embryonic limb bud.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)