title: Human fetal ovarian culture permits meiotic progression and chromosome pairing process.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The female meiotic process seems to be crucial for aneuploidy in humans. The first stages of mammalian female meiosis take place during the fetal period. Therefore, only little is known about female meiosis. The goal of this study was to develop a culture technique that permits human oocytes to progress through meiotic prophase, to provide a system to study human female meiosis.
  
  
  METHODS
  Fetal ovaries from four cases were cultured up to 35 days in alpha-minimal essential medium, 2% human serum albumin, 5 microg/ml insulin, 5 microg/ml transferrin, 5 ng/ml selenium and 100 IU/ml penicillin-100 microg/ml streptomycin.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although ovarian response to culture conditions varied, human oocytes survived in vitro up to 5 weeks. In three cases, we observed significant variation in stages of meiosis among the cultures. The homologous chromosome pairing process was studied for the first time in cultured oocytes, and the results suggested that the pairing process was completed following the same features described previously for euploid oocytes, as followed by the chromosome-13 pairing process and synaptonemal complex formation. Although a higher proportion of degenerated oocytes were observed as culture time increased, we also observed oogonial entrance to meiotic prophase.
authors.affiliation: Departament de Biologia Cel.lular, Fisiologia i Immunologia, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Spain.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Roig
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Garcia
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Robles
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Cortvrindt
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Egozcue
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Smitz
authors.forename: Montserrat
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Garcia
mesh_terms: D002453:Cell Cycle; D023902:Chromosome Pairing; D002882:Chromosomes, Human, Pair 13 / Q000648:ultrastructure; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D017404:In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence; D008540:Meiosis; D009865:Oocytes / Q000378:metabolism; D009924:Organ Culture Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D010053:Ovary / Q000196:embryology; D011418:Prophase