Purpose: To report two azoospermic patients with reciprocal X–autosome translocations.

Premature ovarian failure is a condition causing amenorrhea, hypoestrogenism, and elevated gonadotropins in women younger than 40 years. A karyotype should be performed as part of basic laboratory evaluation for all patients with premature ovarian failure and prodromal premature ovarian failure. Gonadal dysgenesis represents a wide spectrum of clinical phenotypes, gonadal structures that include the presence of at least one streak gonad, and a variety of X chromosome abnormalities and mosaicism. Development of a malignancy in a dysgenetic gonad is of major concern. The presence of a fragment of the Y chromosome is thought to be a key to the oncogenic potential of these gonads. Malignant potential is clearly not linked to the testicular determining factor itself (SRY). Failure to display SRY or a closely related sequence does not rule out the presence of the segment of the Y chromosome postulated to be associated with the development of malignancies. Pregnancy in premature ovarian failure with chromosomal abnormality is rare. Furthermore, the incidence of pregnancy in patient with Y chromosome is very rare. We have experienced a case of premature ovarian failure with chromosomal abnormality involving Y chromosome fragment. She has got pregnant spontaneously and gave birth to male baby but he was found to have the same karyotype as his mother. So we report this case with a brief review of literatures.

of the 13th Annual Meeting of the ESHRE, Edinburgh 1997 MAPK activation.The effect was strongest when GnSIF was added after 10 min, i.e. during 5 min of co-incubation (5-fold decrease).A similar decrease in MAPK activation was observed in aT3-1 cells when GnSIF was replaced with 8-Br-c-AMP (3-fold decrease), an effect that persisted in the longer coincubation periods.Conclusions: Results from the primary pituitary cells indicate that GnSIF may exert its inhibitory effect upstream from GnRH-induced MAPK activation in the intracellular signal transduction cascade, eventually leading to LH release.Moreover, the observation that in aT3-1 cells GnRHIc-AMP but not GnRHIGnSIF co-incubations resulted in inhibition of MAPK activation suggests that both the aT3-1 cells do not express a functional GnSIF receptor-adenylyl cyclase complex, and the GnSIF receptor in the gonadotrophic cells of 28 day old rats may act via the c-AMP signal transduction pathway.

Immunosuppression by exogenous corticosteroids has been used to improve the rates of embryo implantation and pregnancy in in-vitro fertilization (IVF) patients who have micromanipulated embryos replaced. The present study was conducted, in a prospective design, to evaluate effects of corticosteroid on the pregnancy rate in IVF/embryo transfer patients who have non-micromanipulated embryos replaced. Infertile women < 40 years old with tubal factor were included in this study. Patients were grouped according to the different follicle stimulation protocols, and received various doses of 16 beta-methylprednisolone (0, 16 or 60 mg/day) for 4 days from the day of oocyte retrieval. The mean age, duration of infertility, length of folliculogenesis and serum oestradiol concentrations at the time of human chorionic gonadotrophin (HCG) injection were not significantly different between control and corticosteroid-treated groups of patients. Short-term immunosuppression by 16 beta-methylprednisolone administration did not show any effects on the pregnancy and miscarriage rates in IVF/embryo transfer patients. Also, immunosuppression showed no dose effects in any groups. There was no relationship between the types of follicle stimulation protocols and the effect of 16 beta-methylprednisolone. Therefore, we concluded that short-term immunosuppression by exogenous corticosteroids in IVF/embryo transfer patients who have embryos with intact zona pellucida replaced has neither positive nor negative effects on pregnancy rates.

Immature human follicular oocytes were collected from unstimulated ovaries, matured and fertilized in vitro and then transferred to patients with no ovarian dysfunction such as premature ovarian failure. From 11 1 consenting donors, 422 immature oocytes were collected from 97 ovaries between January 1990 and October 1991. The number of oocytes collected from ovaries and their development were recorded so that comparisons could be made among donors of different ages and ovarian condition, such as menstrual cycle, cyclic and non-cyclic ovaries. The rate of fertilization in vitro showed a peak in the 31-40-year age group; however, there was no statistical difference in the rate of oocyte maturation and cleavage among the donors in the different age groups. Immature oocytes of the luted phase had a significantly higher maturation rate than those of the follicular phase. There was no significant difference in the number of recovered oocytes, or in the development of immature follicular oocytes, between cyclic and non-cyclic ovaries. Mature follicular fluid and peritoneal fluid had a significant effect on the development of immature follicular oocytes. Also, it was found that fertilized eggs cleaved more frequently in the medium containing hypoxanthine compared with the medium without hypoxanthine. Finally, from 21 transfer cycles, viable embryos were derived from immature follicular oocytes, resulting in two pregnancies, both leading to the birth of normal babies. These findings suggest that culture in vitro of immature follicular oocytes, from unstimulated ovaries, to a suitable condition, could be used optimally for clinical applications such as human ovum donation programmes.