Editorial [ Hot Topic:New Frontiers in Female Reproduction and Fertility (Executive Guest Editor: Sandra Cecconi)]

Publisher: Bentham Science Publishers

E-ISSN: 1873-4286|18|3|231-232

ISSN: 1381-6128

Source: Current Pharmaceutical Design, Vol.18, Iss.3, 2012-01, pp. : 231-232

Disclaimer: Any content in publications that violate the sovereignty, the constitution or regulations of the PRC is not accepted or approved by CNPIEC.

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Abstract

The last years have witnessed a tremendous expansion of research areas related on female infertility. Starting from 1978, when Robert Edwards and Patrick Steptoe made possible to obtain live babies by in vitro fertilization (IVF), knowledge of the most intriguing molecular processes occurring in germ and somatic cells of the mammalian ovary is dramatically increased. After 1997, the year of Dolly, the use of oocytes for cloning purposes has opened up exciting and unpredictable scenarios, irreversibly changing our approach to a great number of pathologies.Both IVF and cloning require the utilization of developmentally-competent oocytes, that are produced at the end of a long and complex process occurring in the ovary and strictly influenced by many factors as hormones, nutrition, sexual behavior, exposure to toxicant (e.g. alcohol, smoking and environmental contaminants) [1, 2]. The fact that more than 10% of all couples worldwide are unable to conceive highlights the need of approaching and treating such a sensitive problem in a young and likely healthy population. In recent years, this picture has been further complicated by the significant increase in women postponing pregnancy after 40 years for social reasons [3], and in cancer survivors asking for options to chemotherapy-dependent sterility [4]. The need to respond efficiently to these problems must take into account that a low number of mature oocytes is physiologically produced during whole fertile life (about 500), and that the possibility to produce in vitro high number of fertilizable occytes is still experimental [5].The reviews presented in this issue of Current Pharmaceutical Design aim at providing the readers with a comprehensive understanding of some “hot” topics in the area of female fertility, from basic to applied research.The first three reviews have dedicated to analyze some of the processes controlling oocyte production. In the first review, De Felici and Farini [6] offered a comprehensive insight of the molecular mechanisms controlling the development of mammalian primordial germ cells, and clarified intriguing aspects of germ cell biology such as the origin of germ cell tumours and the mechanisms allowing the maintenance of totipotency in the germ line. The role played by peptides and regulative factors other than gonadotropins in the intra-ovarian control of oocyte development up to ovulation has been addressed by Canipari, Cellini and myself [7]. Beside molecular pathways, particular emphasis has been devoted to feedback mechanisms operating between oocyte and surrounding somatic cells, and to relationship between absence/anomalous expression of some of these intra-ovarian factors and onset of ovarian cancer. The production of a developmentallycompetent oocyte relies on capacity to store molecules and mRNAs necessary to sustain its own development as well early embryonic stages. Among the thousand genes expressed in the oocyte, a key role is played by maternal effect genes, i.e genes not found in somatic tissues. In their review, Ledda et al. [8] discussed about maternal to embryonic transition in sheep, that is considered a useful model to improve IVF.....