Failure of oocyte maturation: possible mechanisms for oocyte maturation arrest.
For human IVF, the patient's ovaries are hormonally stimulated to ensure the collection of fully matured oocytes that are at the metaphase II stage. Only these oocytes can be successfully fertilized either when mixed with sperm or after ICSI. Nevertheless, in some cases immature or maturing oocytes are recovered from follicles. Surprisingly, sometimes these oocytes do not complete maturation when cultured in vitro, for unknown reasons. In this article we discuss some possible mechanisms that may be responsible for those atypical arrests.
Mrazek
Milan
M
ISCARE IVF, Hloubetinska 3/13, CS-198 00 Prague 9 and Institute of Animal Production, POB 1, CS-104 01 Prague 10, Czech Republic.
Fulka
Josef
J
D000818:Animals; D016922:Cellular Senescence; D005260:Female; D005307:Fertilization in Vitro; D006801:Humans; D008540:Meiosis; D008677:Metaphase; D009865:Oocytes / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D020554:Sperm Injections, Intracytoplasmic