الفهرس 
INTRODUCTIONOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Numerus efforts have been made to understand the physiology of the process of fertilization and to determine the intrinsic mechanism of the interaction between the male and female gametes.
Infertile women also have high rates of early unknown pregnancy loss, and clinical spontaneous abortion.
Multiple methods of oocyte selection had been proposed. The study of oocyte morphology is very popular, being relatively quick and simple; however, it identify more frequently ”negative” than ”positive” predictors of oocyte quality, and overall is not fully satisfactory. Some authors had studied the genes’ expression in the oocyte itself or in the granulosa cells, looking for certain molecular markers of oocyte quality. Polar body biopsy is somewhere used in screening oocytes with chromosomal defects resulting from errors in the two meiotic divisions. Most of these techniques are quite complicated, require expensive laboratory equipment and time consuming procedures, and consequently are not currently applicable in the clinical practice. Follicular fluid (FF) provides a very important microenvironment for the development of oocytes. FF is a product of both the transfer of blood plasma constituents that cross the blood follicular barrier and of the secretory activity of granulosa and theca cells. It is reasonable to think that some biochemical characteristics of the FF surrounding the oocyte may play a critical role in determining oocyte quality and the subsequent potential to achieve fertilization and embryo development. The analysis of components of FF may provide information on blood serum metabolic changes, as the circulating biochemical milieu may be reflected in the composition of FF.
It has been previously shown that altered FF composition is associated with diminished reproductive capacity. Therefore, proteome analysis of FF might be helpful in evaluating oocyte quality and identifying predictive markers for oocyte developmental potential prior to fertilization and the success in assisted reproductive technology (ART).
Lactoferrin is an 80-kDa iron-binding glycoprotein, first identified in breast milk as a protein product of mammary epithelial cells. Regarding the involvement of LF in the female reproductive tract, estrogen has been reported to increase the expression of LF in uterine endometrial epithelium in mice and rats.
The fact that LF levels increase during inflammatory processes and with the inhibitory effect on gamete interaction could have implications in reproductive disorders associated with some of the inflammatory diseases. Other studies directed to investigate the LF effect on gamete function are in progress.
The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of using lactoferrin on oocyte and embryo quality in sperm injection intracytoplasmic cycles.