• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.49-56
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• 2010

Objective: To investigate assisted reproductive technology (ART) outcomes in women with WHO class I anovulation compared with control group. Design: Retrospective case-control study. Methods: Twenty-three infertile women with hypogonadotropic hypogonadism (H-H) who undertook ART procedure from August 2003 to January 2009 were enrolled in this study. A total of 59 cycles (H-H group) were included; Intra-uterine insemination with super-ovulation (SO-IUI, 32 cycles), in vitro fertilization with fresh embryo transfer (IVF-ET, 18 cycles) and subsequent frozenthawed embryo transfer (FET, 9 cycles). Age and BMI matched 146 cycles of infertile women were collected as control group; 64 cycles of unexplained infertile women for SO-IUI and 54 cycles of IVF-ET and 28 cycles of FET with tubal factor. We compared ART and pregnancy outcomes such as clinical pregnancy rate (CPR), clinical abortion rate (CAR), and live birth rate (LBR) between the two groups. Results: There was no difference in the mean age ($32.7{\pm}3.3$ vs. $32.6{\pm}2.7$ yrs) and BMI ($21.0{\pm}3.1$ vs. $20.8{\pm}3.1kg/m^2$) between two groups. Mean levels of basal LH, FSH, and $E_2$ in H-H group were $0.62{\pm}0.35$ mIU/ml, $2.60{\pm}2.30$ mIU/ml and $10.1{\pm}8.2$ pg/ml, respectively. For ovarian stimulation, H-H group needed higher total amount of gonadotropin injected and longer duration for ovarian stimulation (p<0.001). In SO-IUI cycles, there was no significant difference of CPR, CAR, and LBR between the two groups. In IVF-ET treatment, H-H group presented higher mean $E_2$ level on hCG day ($3104.8{\pm}1020.2$ pg/ml vs. $1878.3{\pm}1197.7$ pg/ml, p<0.001) with lower CPR (16.7 vs. 37.0%, p=0.11) and LBR (5.6 vs. 33.3%, p=0.02) and higher CAR (66.7 vs. 10.0%, p=0.02) compared with the control group. However, subsequent FET cycles showed no significant difference of CPR, CAR, and LBR between the two groups. Conclusion: H-H patients need higher dosage of gonadotropin and longer duration for ovarian stimulation compared with the control groups. Significantly poor pregnancy outcomes in IVF-ET cycles of H-H group may be due to detrimental endometrial factors caused by higher $E_2$ level and the absence of previous hormonal exposure on endometrium.

• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.91-104
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• 2010

The experiments were undertaken to evaluate the effects of herbal medicine, Bojungiggitang and Gwibitang in pregnant rats and their fetuses. Female Sprague-Dawley rats were orally administered with the Bojungiggitang and Gwibitang at dose of 5ml/kg/day for 20 days. Pregnant rats were sacrificed at 20th day of gestation, and the internal and reproductive organs. Approximately live fetuses in the 20th day of gestation were randomly selected and fixed in 95% ethanol. To observe skeletal malformations, fetuses were stained with alcian blue and alizarin red S. Maternal body weights of Bojungiggitang and Gwibitang treated group has a tendency to increase compared to that of control group. There were no significant differences in internal and reproductive organs. There were no significant changes between two groups in blood chemistry and hematological values. There were no significant changes in number of corpus luteum, implantation and live fetuses. But Bojungiggitang and Gwibitang administered group showed higher implantation rate than the control group. Also, Bojungiggitang and Gwibitang administered groups showed lower early resorption rate than the control group. And Gwibitang had the higher value in all the other groups in all items. From the sex ratio, the number of females were larger than the number of males in the control group, and more males than females in Gwibitang administered group. Neonatal body weight and the number of fetus of Bojungiggitang and Gwibitang group were higher than that of control group. The fetuses of dams treated with Bojungiggitang and Gwibitang did not show external malformation. Vertebral and sternal variations were observed in Bojungiggitang and Gwibitang administered group compared to the control group. Those variations were insignificant. There were no significant changes in number of ribs, cervical, thoracic, lumbar, sacral and caudal vertebras. From these results, it can be concluded that Bojungiggitang and Gwibitang showed no toxic effects on maternal body weight and the number of live fetuses. There were no significant changes in organ weight, hematological data, and reproductive organs. Although skeletal variations were shown in vertebra and sternum, Bojungiggitang, Gwibitang were shown insignificant changes in bone malformation.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.95-103
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• 2004

Objective: To compare COH characteristics and IVF outcomes among IVF-ET patients who were treated with various therapeutic modalities for ovarian endometriomas and to propose effective pre-cyclic therapeutic modalities to improve IVF-ET outcomes in the patients with ovarian endometriomas. Methods: All cases that had undergone IVF-ET after laparoscopy between January 1997 to August 2003 were reviewed. Forty-eight patients with tubal factor were assigned to Group I. Twenty seven, 22 and 38 patients diagnosed as severe pelvic adhesion with ovarian endometriomas by laparoscopy received only medical therapy (Group II), cyst aspiration (Group III), and sclerotherapy (Group IV), respectively. Laparoscopic cystectomy was performed in 20 patients (Group V). Resistance index was measured on day administering hCG. Results: As compared with Group I, in Group II resistance index increased (p<0.05) but number of oocytes, good-quality oocyte ratio (mature and intermediate oocytes/total retrieval oocytes), fertilization rate, and embryo development rate decreased (p<0.05). In Group III fertilization rate and embryo development rate decreased (p<0.05). There was no difference between Group IV and Group I in all parameters except basal FSH which increased (p<0.05). In Group V basal FSH, and resistance increased (p<0.05) and number of oocytes and good-quality oocytes ratio decreased (p<0.05). Conclusion: Sclerotherapy is an effective therapeutic option which can be done prior to IVF-ET cycles in the patients with ovarian endometriomas. Further studies on a large scale are necessary to confirm these data.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.211-220
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• 1995

Though the endometriosis is not always related with infertility, endometriosis causes infertility in some patients. There are many treatment modalities of infertile patients who have endometriosis. In recent years, Assisted Reproductive Technology(ART) have been widely accepted as being a useful tool for the treatment of infertile endometriotic patients. The objective of this study was to evaluate the outcome of ART in infertile endometriotic patients who have been carried out IVF-ET from Jan, 1992 to Dec, 1994 and to compare the results between COH/IUI and IVF-ET in the patients with endometriosis stage I. Tubal disease only patients were grouped(308 patient, 956 cycles) as a control. Endometriosis group was subdivided into 4 groups according to American Fertility Society classification; endometriosis stage I (45 patients, 61 cycles), stage II (26 patients, 39 cycles), stage III (26 pateitns, 37 cycles), stage IV (33 patients, 50 cycles). The outcomes of IVF-ET in endometriosis patients were as follows; The oocyte recovery rates were significantly lower in stage III, IV endometriosis. In case of stage III endometriosis, the fertilization rate was significantly lower than other stages of endometriosis. Clinical pregnancy rates per cycle were not different between the tubal group(22%) and the endometriosis group(25%). According to endometriosis stage, the implantation rate and clinical pregnancy rate were significantly lower in stage IV (5.6%, 16%) compared with other stages (I; 10.0%, 26%, II;9.8%, 31%, III;12.6%, 32%). It suggests that some factor like autoantibodies may inhibit implantation of embryos in stage IV endometriosis. To evaluate the possibility that simply increasing the number of gametes at the site of fertilization might account for pregnancies attributed to IVF-ET, the authors retrospectively analyzed the outcome of couples undergoing IUI during hMG cycles and CC cycles between 1992 and 1994 in the women with endometriosis stage 1. In case of stage I endometriosis, though the COH/IUI group showed lower FSH level and lesser age profile than IVF-ET group, IUI group has resulted in lower pregnancy rates(19.2%) compared with the IVF-ET group(26.2%). In conclusion, endometriotic infertile patients can get comparable pregnancy rates with the tubal factor infertility patients during IVF-ET program. Moreover even in stage I endometriosis, IVF-ET may be an more effective treatment modality than COH/IUI.

• Journal of Embryo Transfer
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.49-52
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• 1994

This study was carried out to compare farrowing rate and litter traits for European and American lines with boar sperm frozen in straws. Farrowing rate, litter size and mean pig weght at birth and 21 days were investigated. A total of 36 gilts Landrace, Large white and Duroc were investigated at the Chungnam Provincial Animal Breeding Station. We obtained higher farrowing rate and litter traits for European line boars compared to American line boars.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.93-100
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• 1987

To determine the effect of calcium on the preimplantational development of mouse two-cell embryo, the various concentrations of calcium were added into the culture media and the rate of blastocyst formation was observed. Also, to examine the effect of trifluoperazine, an inhibitor of calmodulin which is involved in the several intracellular calcium functions, embryos were cultured for 48 hours at the various concentrations of this inhibitor. An additional 24 hour culture was done to examine the effect of this drug on the transformation from morula to blastocyst. The results are as following ; 1. About 1.71mM of extracellular calcium is adequate for blastocyst formation and the higher concentrations of calcium (3.43mM and 8.55mM) do not affect on the blastocyst formation and the degenerating rate. 2. Trifluoperazine $100{\mu}M$ presents the inhibitory effect on the blastocyst formation while $1{\mu}M$ and $10{\mu}M$ do not so. 3. After an additional 24 hour culture, there is transformation of morula to blastocyst and the degenerating rate of embryo is increased all together.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.113-118
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• 1989

In order to study the effects of $Ca^{++}$ and dbcAMP on sperm motility, cauda epididyal spermatozoa of mouse were incubated in the media containing the various concentrations of $Ca^{++}$ and dbcAMP, and Its motility were observed and analyzed. The rate(%) of the sperm with forward motility which may be fertile, reached at the equilibrium state in 30-60 min. after the beginning of incubation. $Ca^{++}$ requirement for the maintenance of sperm motility obviously appeared in 3hrs. after the beginning of incubation. In the medium containing 0.01mM $Ca^{++}$, the rate of sperm forward motility was highest(30.6-40.6%), whereas in 10mM $Ca^{++}$ medium, the rate was rather reduced because of a severe agglutination phenomenon. On the other hand, 1mM dbcAMP in the medium was significantly effective for the maintenance of sperm forward motility.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.15-21
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• 1989

An in vitro fertilization assay employing zona-free hamster embryos was used to investigate human spermatozoal fertilitzing ability. Yanaghimarchi et al.(1976) first introduced this cross species fertilzation technique, with its application as a diagnostic tool for male infertility. Human spermatozoa were preincubated for 3 to 4 hrs in B W W medium at concentration of $4{\times}10^6$ sperm/ml prior to the addition to zona-free hamster embryos. After 3 hrs, human sperm was evaluated for fertilizing potential by the presence of swelling or decondencing sperm head in the cytoplasm. The results of penetration rates for sperm were as follow : 1. The average penetration rate of a 7 fertile donor group was $47.8{\pm}27.67%$(Range 14.3-98.0%) 2. The average penetration rate of 12 infertile patients with normal semen analysis was $21.7{\pm}26.9%$(Range 0-38.8%) 3. The average penetration rate of 10 infertile patients with semen abnormalities was $6.1{\pm}8.1%$(Range 0-25%)

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.255-264
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• 2001

Objective : This study was performed to investigate the effect of metformin therapy on ovulation induction & pregnancy rate in clomiphene citrate-resistant PCOS women. Method: This study used a randomized, single-blinded, case-controlled methods. Total study group consisted of 21 women who showed clomiphene citrate-resistant parttern on previous ovulation induction cycles. Patients of metformin group received metformin 500 mg three times daily, for 7 weeks. Control group received none. Metformin group was consisted of 10 women and control group was consisted of 11 women. Then clomiphene was administrated at daily 50 mg for 5 days to both groups. Clomiphene dosage was increased to daily 150 mg until ovulation was occurred. Before and After metformin treatment, blood samples for measurement of insulin, glucose, steroids were obtained. Results: In the metformin and control groups, 6 of 10 women (60%) and 2 of 11 women (18%) ovulated. And 4 of 10 women (40%) and 0 of 11 women (0%) conceived. Comparisons between the groups were significant. Conclusion: In PCOS women who are resistant to CC, metformin use increased the ovulation rate and pregnancy rate from CC treatment, significantly.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.84-99
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• 1982

Water content and its seasonal change in reprodltctive organs were reviewed in relation to cultivation practice s. Precipitati on and humidity under shade roof were reviewed in relation to shading ,jystem and environmental factors. High water content of reproductive organs suggests vulnerability to water stress during reproductive growth stage. Watering during dehisconce treat menu seems to keep optimum temperature but cnoventional practice seems to be too often In watering. Information effe on water physiology of seeds is too rare to develop seed storing method and ctive seed use. Dehiscent mechanism was considered in terms of water absorption of embryo. Precipitation rate of conventional shade roof reaclled to 38% and at line level 50% and varied with shade patterns. Precipitation rate under shade has been investigated for itself but should be investigated in relation to light intensity and soil moisture content Relative humidity under shade depends mainly on air humidity and soil moisture, considerably on shade materials and lithe on pole height, bed width or plant density. Since relative humidity was lower in afternoon it was often less than 50% even in summer with high temperature suggesting possible disorder of phi biological function especially in photosynthesis. More information was needed on optimum humidity for productive physiological function of leaf.