The effects of insulin and follicle-simulating hormone (FSH) during in vitro development of ovarian goat preantral follicles and the relative mRNA expression for insulin and FSH receptors and cytochrome P450 aromatase in cultured follicles

The actions of different concentrations of insulin alone or in combination with follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) were evaluated by in vitro follicular development and mRNA expression of cytochrome P450 aromatase (CYP19A1) and as receptors for insulin (INSR) and FSH (FSHR) from isolated, cultured goat preantral follicles. Goat preantral follicles were microdissected and cultured for 18 days in the absence or presence of insulin (5 and 10 ng/ml or 10 mu g/ml) alone or in combination with FSH. After 18 days, the addition of the maximum concentration of insulin to the culture medium reduced follicular survival and antrum formation rates significantly compared to the other treatments. However, when FSH was added to the culture medium, no differences between these two parameters were observed. Preantral and antral follicles from the fresh control as well as from all cultured follicles still presented a normal ultrastructural pattern. In medium supplemented with FSH, only insulin at 10 ng/ml presented oocytes with higher rates of meiosis resumption compared to control, as well as oocytes in metaphase II. Treatment with insulin (10 ng/ml) plus FSH resulted in significantly increased levels of INSR and CYP19A1 mRNA compared to that with other treatments. In conclusion, 10 ng/ml insulin associated with FSH was more efficient in promoting resumption of oocyte meiosis, maintaining survival, stimulating follicular development, and increasing expression of the INSR and CYP19A1 genes in goat preantral follicles

Numerical bifurcation analysis of two coupled FitzHugh-Nagumo oscillators

The behavior of neurons can be modeled by the FitzHugh-Nagumo oscillator model, consisting of two nonlinear differential equations, which simulates the behavior of nerve impulse conduction through the neuronal membrane. In this work, we numerically study the dynamical behavior of two coupled FitzHugh-Nagumo oscillators. We consider unidirectional and bidirectional couplings, for which Lyapunov and isoperiodic diagrams were constructed calculating the Lyapunov exponents and the number of the local maxima of a variable in one period interval of the time-series, respectively. By numerical continuation method the bifurcation curves are also obtained for both couplings. The dynamics of the networks here investigated are presented in terms of the variation between the coupling strength of the oscillators and other parameters of the system. For the network of two oscillators unidirectionally coupled, the results show the existence of Arnold tongues, self-organized sequentially in a branch of a Stern-Brocot tree and by the bifurcation curves it became evident the connection between these Arnold tongues with other periodic structures in Lyapunov diagrams. That system also present multistability shown in the planes of the basin of attractions.Comment: 9 pages and 8 figure