title: Parthenogenesis and Human Assisted Reproduction.
abstract: Parthenogenetic activation of human oocytes obtained from infertility treatments has gained new interest in recent years as an alternative approach to create embryos with no reproductive purpose for research in areas such as assisted reproduction technologies itself, somatic cell, and nuclear transfer experiments and for derivation of clinical grade pluripotent embryonic stem cells for regenerative medicine. Different activating methods have been tested on human and nonhuman oocytes, with varying degrees of success in terms of parthenote generation rates, embryo development stem cell derivation rates. Success in achieving a standardized artificial activation methodology for human oocytes and the subsequent potential therapeutic gain obtained from these embryos depends mainly on the availability of gametes donated from infertility treatments. This review will focus on the creation of parthenotes from clinically unusable oocytes for derivation and establishment of human parthenogenetic stem cell lines and their potential applications in regenerative medicine.
authors.affiliation: Department of Morphological Sciences, ICBS, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, 90050-170 Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.
authors.forename: Adriana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bos-Mikich
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary Medicine, Faculty of Animal, Science and Food Engineering (FZEA), University of São Paulo (USP), 13635-000 Pirassununga, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Fabiana F
authors.initials: FF
authors.lastname: Bressan
authors.affiliation: Department of Morphological Sciences, ICBS, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, 90050-170 Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.
authors.forename: Rafael R
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Ruggeri
authors.affiliation: WTA Fertilização In Vitro Ltda, 14140-000 Cravinhos, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Yeda
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Watanabe
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary Medicine, Faculty of Animal, Science and Food Engineering (FZEA), University of São Paulo (USP), 13635-000 Pirassununga, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Flávio V
authors.initials: FV
authors.lastname: Meirelles