Impact of the follicular fluid Coenzyme Q10 level in women undergoing intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) on the pregnancy rate

Background: The most crucial problem with in vitro fertilization (IVF) cycles is still oocyte quality. The women age and the condition of their ovarian reserve are the primary determinants of oocyte quality. Objectives: to assess the effects of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) on the result of pregnancies and the coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) value in follicular fluid (FF) in the women who had the procedure. Patients and methods: this cohort investigation was conducted on 81 infertile patients (age between 20-42 years, both normal or poor responders’ patients and patients with unexplained infertility) who underwent ICSI cycles. Results: patients were divided into two groups: the pregnant group (n= 32) and the non-pregnant group (n= 49).There was a statistically insignificant difference in antral follicle count (AFC), number of retrieved oocytes, number of embryos, number of metaphase II (MII) oocytes, and maturation index between pregnant and non-pregnant females. CoQ10 level in FF was substantially greater in pregnant than non-pregnant females. Conclusion: FF CoQ10 levels were positively correlated with eventual embryo quality and rates of conception. Our findings might be in favour of CoQ10 supplementation in women undergoing IVF for enhancement of the ovum and embryo quality

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

A survey on experimental and numerical studies of convection heat transfer of nanofluids inside closed conduits

WOS:000386917900032International audienceApplication of nanofluids in heat transfer enhancement is prospective. They are solid/liquid suspensions of higher thermal conductivity and viscosity compared to common working fluids. A number of studies have been performed on the effect of nanofluids in heat transfer to determine the enhancement of properties in addition to rearrangement of flow passage configurations. The principal objective of this study is to elaborate this research based on natural, forced, and the mixed heat transfer characteristics of nanofluids exclusively via convection for single- and two-phase mixture models. In this study, the convection heat transfer to nanofluids has been reviewed in various closed conduits both numerically and experimentally

Design and Optimization of Miniaturized Microstrip Patch Antennas Using a Genetic Algorithm

The main objective of this work is to propose an approach for improving the performance of miniaturized microstrip patch antennas (MPAs) that are loaded with a thin film consisting of a high relative permittivity material. The method uses a thin film to decrease the antenna’s resonance frequency while keeping the antenna’s patch dimensions. For the enhancement of the antenna’s performance with a thin film, the dimensions of the patch of the designed antenna are optimized utilizing genetic algorithms (GAs). The resonance frequency of the microstrip patch antenna was changed from 5.8 GHz to 4.0 GHz, and the area of the proposed antenna was minimized by around 60%, especially in comparison to a conventional antenna alone without thin film. Most of the performances of the proposed antenna such as the return loss, bandwidth, and voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) were improved

Design and Optimization of Miniaturized Microstrip Patch Antennas Using a Genetic Algorithm

The main objective of this work is to propose an approach for improving the performance of miniaturized microstrip patch antennas (MPAs) that are loaded with a thin film consisting of a high relative permittivity material. The method uses a thin film to decrease the antenna’s resonance frequency while keeping the antenna’s patch dimensions. For the enhancement of the antenna’s performance with a thin film, the dimensions of the patch of the designed antenna are optimized utilizing genetic algorithms (GAs). The resonance frequency of the microstrip patch antenna was changed from 5.8 GHz to 4.0 GHz, and the area of the proposed antenna was minimized by around 60%, especially in comparison to a conventional antenna alone without thin film. Most of the performances of the proposed antenna such as the return loss, bandwidth, and voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) were improved

Enzymatic nucleosome acetylation selectively affects activity of histone methyltransferases in vitro

Posttranslational modification of histones plays a critical role in regulation of gene expression. These modifications include methylation and acetylation that work in combination to establish transcriptionally active or repressive chromatin states. Histone methyltransferases (HMTs) often have variable levels of activity in vitro depending on the form of substrate used. For example, certain HMTs prefer nucleosomes extracted from human or chicken cells as substrate compared to recombinant nucleosomes reconstituted from bacterially produced histones. We considered that pre-existing histone modifications in the extracted nucleosomes can affect the efficiency of catalysis by HMTs, suggesting functional cross-talk between histone-modifying enzymes within a complex network of interdependent activities. Here we systematically investigated the effect of nucleosome acetylation by EP300, GCN5L2 (KAT2A) and MYST1 (MOF) on histone 3 lysine 4 (H3K4), H3K9 and H4K20 methylation of nucleosomes by nine HMTs (MLL1, MLL3, SET1B, G9a, SETDB1, SUV39H1, SUV39H2, SUV420H1 and SUV420H2) in vitro. Our full kinetic characterization data indicate that site-specific acetylation of nucleosomal histones by specific acetyltransferases can create nucleosomes that are better substrates for specific HMTs. This includes significant increases in catalytic efficiencies of SETDB1, G9a and SUV420H2 after nucleosome acetylation in vitro

Discovery of a chemical probe for PRDM9

PRDM9 is a PR domain containing protein which trimethylates histone 3 on lysine 4 and 36. Its normal expression is restricted to germ cells and attenuation of its activity results in altered meiotic gene transcription, impairment of double-stranded breaks and pairing between homologous chromosomes. There is growing evidence for a role of aberrant expression of PRDM9 in oncogenesis and genome instability. Here we report the discovery of MRK-740, a potent (IC50: 80 ± 16 nM), selective and cell-active PRDM9 inhibitor (Chemical Probe). MRK-740 binds in the substrate-binding pocket, with unusually extensive interactions with the cofactor S-adenosylmethionine (SAM), conferring SAM-dependent substrate-competitive inhibition. In cells, MRK-740 specifically and directly inhibits H3K4 methylation at endogenous PRDM9 target loci, whereas the closely related inactive control compound, MRK-740-NC, does not. The discovery of MRK-740 as a chemical probe for the PRDM subfamily of methyltransferases highlights the potential for exploiting SAM in targeting SAM-dependent methyltransferases