Fertility Content

Transparent Worms with Glowing Proteins May Help Fertility Treatments

Andy Fell — November 21, 2024 - 2:03pm

The development of maternal egg cells is pivotal for survival – but also precarious. During meiosis, the DNA-containing chromosomes can easily be broken or lost, causing infertility, miscarriage or genetic disorders like Down syndrome. Scientists have struggled to study these crucial cellular events in humans and other mammals.

Invisible Anatomy in the Fruit Fly Uterus

Andy Fell — October 25, 2024 - 11:06am

You have likely not spent much time thinking about the uterus of the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. But then, neither have most scientists, even though Drosophila is one of the most thoroughly studied lab animals. Now a team of biologists at the University of California, Davis, has taken the first deep look at the Drosophila uterus and found some surprises, which could have implications not just for understanding insect reproduction and potentially, pest control, but also for understanding fertility in humans.

Protein Integral to Sperm Development and Male Fertility Identified

Andy Fell — February 21, 2024 - 3:20pm

Early in the development of sperm, a strange event happens: the X and Y chromosomes condense into tight packages and are sequestered away from the other 44 human chromosomes. If any part of this process goes awry, the cells cannot mature into sperm. Researchers in the ��ϲ��Ͽ� Davis College of Biological Sciences have now identified an important link in this process — a little-known protein called ATF7IP2.

Immune Cells Drive Sex Reversal in Zebrafish – and Perhaps Fertility Loss in Women

Andy Fell — December 11, 2023 - 10:01am

Female zebrafish (Danio rerio) have an unusual tendency: if their egg cells are damaged, they can turn into males. Bruce Draper, a professor in the ��ϲ��Ͽ� Davis Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology and Florence Marlow, a professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, have discovered that immune cells called macrophages play a key role in this process.

Hitting Reset to Start a New Embryo

Andy Fell — July 19, 2023 - 10:38am

New work by scientists in the U.S. and China shows how a fertilized egg cell, or zygote, hits ‘reset’ so that the newly formed embryo can develop according to its own genetic program. The study was published July 17 in Nature.

Study Reveals How the Ovarian Reserve Is Established

Andy Fell — August 10, 2022 - 8:20am

Fertility is finite for mammalian females. From birth, females possess a limited number of primordial follicles, collectively called the ovarian reserve. Within each follicle is an oocyte that eventually becomes an egg. But with age, the follicles in the ovarian reserve decrease.