Journal of Reproduction & Infertility
Year:2000 | Volume:1 | Issue:4 (4)|Papers Count:9

The aim of this study was to determine the incidence and growth rate of uterine myomas in users of ovulation induction drugs. Eleven hundred in fertile women who had undagone at least 5 cycles of ovulation induction, referring to Royan Institute and Akbarabadi Hospital were selected on the basis of easy access selection method. To study presence or absence of uterine myoma, all the patients were subjected to sonograply before ovulation induction The sonography was repeated after at least 5 cycles of ovulation induction and was compared with the initial sonography. Of the 1100 patients, 54 had myoma and of the 1046 myoma–free patients, 71 (6.8%) developed myoma later and of the 54 with initial myoma, 40 (%74) showed increased growth of their myoma. This study is a beginning for studies on the effect of ovulation induction on the growth rate of uterine myomas and may be a comparison basis for the incidenee and growth rate of myomas in an age matched control group of women.

Today there are a number of methods of Assisted Reproductive Technology. The classic method of IVF has a pregnancy rate of 11-12%. GIFT is a new method with a pregnancy rate of 25–35%. In this study 71 patients were included in GIFT cycle. In our study Pregnancy rate of GIFT was 29.6% whereas in 130 cycles of IVF the pregnancy rate was 14.6%. In this study we found that female age, the number of transferred oocytes, and serum estradiol on hCG injection day and sperm characteristics were influential factors affecting the outcome of GIFT.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the quality, effective ness and the ideal method of tubal ligation with low complication, low bleeding and early recovery. In this investigation we compared the early complications and the quality of operations in two different tubul ligation techniques on totally 112 women who were operated in two centers in Tehran, Iran; In one group (53 women) tubal ligation was carried out by laparoscopy (with clips and cautery, whereas the other group (59 women) was operated using Pomeroy technique in laparotomy. Collection of information was done using question are and case selection and grouping was performed randomly.The results showed that the duration of operation and hospitalization as well as the amount of bleeding were less in laparoscopy group than in laparatomy group (P<0.05). Moreover, women in laparoscopy group could completely retain their activity more rapidly than the other group. Hematoma and infection were only slightly higher in patients in laparatomy group (P>0.05), whereas pain occurred more aften in the laparatomy group (P<0.05).It can be concluded that complications occur less often in the laparoscopy group in comparison with lapartony group and tubal ligation with laparoscopy can be considered as a better and safer method.

The issue of consent is an old and controversial question in the field of medical ethics. Nowadays, informed consent is widely considered as a fundamental element in carrying out any medical treatments on a person. Yet some aspects of the issue are blurred and need to be studied more carefully. In the present, article after dealing with three concepts of Expressed Consent, Implied Consent and Concealed Consent, it will be concluded that expressed consent is the sole way to reveal and determine the consent of the person in the field of ART. The main contribution of this article is to discuss the concept of the concealed consent. It is discussed that concealed consent is a fiction and thus may not be considered in medical treatments on a person.

Acrosin, an end protease with trypsin-like substrate specificity, is localized in the acrosomal matrix as an enzymatic ally inactive zymogen, proacrosin that is then converted into the active form as a consequence of the acrosome reaction.The physiological role of acrosin in fertilization has long been believed to be the limited proteolysis of the zona pellucida. Using homologous recombination, we have previously successfully produced male mice carrying a disruptive mutation in the acrosin gene and found that the mouse sperm lacking acrosin protease activity still penetrate zona pellucida and normally fertilize the egg .These Results provide evidence, that acrosin is not essential for sperm penetration of the zona pellucida. However, mouse sperm lacking acrosin showed a delay in penetration of the zona pellucida solely at the early stage after insemination .To elucidate the role of acrosin in fertilization; we have examined the involvement of acrosin in fertilization of zona pellucida after hardening and agining. We used DMSO for the hardening of zona pellucida. We observed that sperm lacking acrosin showed a reduced fertilization of eggs after zona pellucida hardening and aging. These data suggest the role of acrosin in combined infertility, which male and female factors are involved

Human chorionic gonadotropin hormone (hCG) belongs to glycoprotein hormones family. Other members of this family include follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), luteinizing hormone (LH) and thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH). All these hormones consist of a common Alfa and a distinct beta subunit. There is a strong similarity between the members of these hormones. Therefore, detection and quantitative measurement of these hormones require production of monoclonal antibodies specific for non-overlapping epitopes on the beta chain or a conformational epitope specific for each hormone. In this study a murine monoclonal antibody against the hCG dimer molecule was produced by hybridoma technology. The specificity of the antibody was assessed by ELISA and Immunoblotting using a panel of highly purified and recombinant forms of glycoprotein hormones including: native hCG and hLH, recombinant hCG, βhCG, hCGα, βhCG carboxyl terminal peptide covering amino acid residues 109-145 (βhCG-CTP), recombinant TSH and native FSH, as well as urine proteins (UP). It was found that the monoclonal antibody reacted with, dimer recombinant and urine purified hCG and hLH, but not with the reduced form of the hormone, nor with recombinant βhCG, αhCG, TSH, native FSH and UP. Using βhCG-CTP fragment with different concentrations to monitor inhibition of hormone – monoclonal antibody interactions, no interference was observed. This implies that the epitope recognized by the monoclonal antibody is different from that presented by βhCG–CTP. These results suggest that the monoclonal antibody recognizes a conformational epitope located at the dimer form of hCG molecule and closely associated with the beta subunit of the hormone.

Cytokines Not only do regulate physiological processes, but also play important roles in immunopathological reactions. The aim of this study was to evaluate the correlation between IL-6 and sex hormone levels with endometriosis and pregnancy rate at the time of oocyte retrieval. In infertile women undergoing IVF-ET Eighty patients received ovulation induction drugs and underwent IVF-ET. IL-6 levels in serum and follicular fluid (FF) were measured by ELISA and FSH, estradiol and progesterone by RIA. In 36 out of 80 patients embryos were transferred and pregnancy rate were evaluated after two weeks. The result showed no significant correlation between serum and FF levels of estradiol, progesterone and FSH with pregnancy rate in IVF patients. Similar levels of IL-6 in serum and FF of pregnant and non pregnant patients after embryo transfer were observed (P>0.05). However there was a significant correlation between FF levels of IL-6 in pregnant and non pregnant endometriosis patients (P<0.05). These results indicate that increase of FF levels of IL-6 may be accompanied by pregnancy rate reduction in endometriosis patients.