This book addresses the impacts of current and future reproductive technologies on our world food production and provides a significant contribution to the importance of research in the area of reproductive physiology that has never been compiled before. It would provide a unique opportunity to separate the impacts of how reproductive technologies have affected different species and their contributions to food production. Lastly, no publication has been compiled that demonstrates the relationship between developments in reproductive management tools and food production that may be used a reference for scientists in addressing future research areas. During the past 50 years assisted reproductive technologies have been developed and refined to increase the number and quality of offspring from genetically superior farm animal livestock species. Artificial insemination (AI), estrous synchronization and fixed-time AI, semen and embryo cryopreservation, multiple ovulation and embryo transfer (MOET), in vitro fertilization, sex determination of sperm or embryos, and nuclear transfer are technologies that are used to enhance the production efficiency of livestock species.

There are several types of damage that can be found in the male gamete. Genetic damage in spermatozoa can originate during spermatogenesis, or it can originate during transit in both male and female genital tracts. Damage can also be due to ageing, environmental or iatrogenic conditions, as well as to the protocols to cryopreserve and to select spermatozoa in assisted reproduction techniques. The purpose of this book is to provide a comprehensive resource for all possible DNA damages in sperm, the relation to fertility and infertility, and possible transgenerational heritable effects.

Comprised exclusively of clinical cases covering abnormal female puberty and its clinical management, this concise, practical casebook will provide clinicians in reproductive endocrinology, gynecology and pediatrics with the best real-world strategies to properly diagnose and treat the various forms of the condition they may encounter. Each chapter is a case that opens with a unique clinical presentation, followed by a description of the diagnosis, assessment and management techniques used to treat it, as well as the case outcome and clinical pearls and pitfalls. Cases included illustrate different causes of abnormal puberty as well as management strategies, including congenital anomalies, endocrine disorders, issues of constitutional delay, obesity, eating disorders, ovarian cancer and the effect of pharmacology, among others. Pragmatic and reader-friendly, Abnormal Female Puberty: A Clinical Casebook will be an excellent resource for reproductive endocrinologists, gynecologists and pediatricians alike.

This practical manual on sperm analysis presents the diagnostic and therapeutic procedures that are used in andrology laboratories to analyse and assess male infertility. Diagnostic areas include: semen analysis and the biochemical, immunological and microbiological examination of human semen and spermatozoa; computer-aided sperm motility analysis; sperm ultrastructure; and assessment of sperm transport through the female tract and sperm fertilizing ability. The clinical relevance of various diagnostic procedures is also discussed. Therapeutic topics include sperm washing techniques, semen cryopreservation, and insemination procedures. The volume also covers safety in the andrology laboratory, technician training, and quality control. The text is extensively illustrated and will be an invaluable resource to all scientists and technicians who diagnose male infertility. It will also be of interest to researchers working in human gamete biology and reproductive physiology. The detailed methods described in the book are relevant to all hospital, commercial, and university laboratories involved in infertility diagnosis and treatment.

Developmental Juvenile Osteology was created as a core reference text to document the development of the entire human skeleton from early embryonic life to adulthood. In the period since its first publication there has been a resurgence of interest in the developing skeleton, and the second edition of Developmental Juvenile Osteology incorporates much of the key literature that has been published in the intervening time. The main core of the text persists by describing each individual component of the human skeleton from its embryological origin through to its final adult form. This systematic approach has been shown to assist the processes of both identification and age estimation and acts as a core source for the basic understanding of normal human skeletal development. In addition to this core, new sections have been added where there have been significant advances in the field.

In this book, leading academics and practitioners in the field of reproductive health address topics such as contraception, abortion, sexually transmitted infections, maternal and prenatal health, sexuality and reproductive rights by examining a number of critical issues in these areas. The authors describe new research, identify gaps and priorities in policy and practice, and illustrate innovative solutions. The book further addresses such current imperatives as understanding the social meanings of emergency contraception, measuring gender-based violence, improving reproductive health governance, strengthening health systems and services, and redressing institutional barriers. The book also assesses how reproductive health programs can be reconfigured to new challenges such as those posed by climate change, vulnerable youth in fragile states, and risks from new infertility treatments. Using a rich and varied set of cases, a broad public health and social science perspective, and novel methodological approaches, this book questions common assumptions, illustrates effective solutions and sets out research, policy, and programmatic agendas for the present and future. This is a comprehensive volume which provides a valuable resource to researchers, educators, practitioners, policymakers and students, as well as anyone studying or advocating for reproductive health.

Anovulation - one of the most common causes of infertility - is here given a thorough review, with classification of the different subtypes, how they are diagnosed, how they are treated, and the possible complications and outcomes involved. This is a comprehensive evidence-based summary from an international expert team, with guidelines for daily practice clearly stated and summarized for your convenience.

Multidisciplinary collection of essays on the relationship of infertility and the "historic" STIs--gonorrhea, chlamydia, and syphilis--producing surprising new insights in studies from across the globe and spanning millennia. A multidisciplinary group of prominent scholars investigates the historical relationship between sexually transmitted infections and infertility. Untreated gonorrhea and chlamydia cause infertility in a proportion of women and men. Unlike the much-feared venereal disease of syphilis--"the pox"--gonorrhea and chlamydia are often symptomless, leaving victims unaware of the threat to their fertility. Science did not unmask the causal microorganisms until thelate nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Their effects on fertility in human history remain mysterious. This is the first volume to address the subject across more than two thousand years of human history. Following asynoptic editorial introduction, part 1 explores the enigmas of evidence from ancient and early modern medical sources. Part 2 addresses fundamental questions about when exactly these diseases first became human afflictions, withnew contributions from bioarcheology, genomics, and the history of medicine, producing surprising new insights. Part 3 presents studies of infertility and its sociocultural consequences in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Africa, Oceania, and Australia. Part 4 examines the quite different ways the infertility threat from STIs was perceived--by scientists, the public, and government--in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Germany, France, and Britain, concluding with a pioneering empirical estimate of the infertility impact in Britain. Simon Szreter is Professor of History and Public Policy, University of Cambridge, and Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge.

Clinical Reproductive Medicine and Surgery offers a succinct overview of both the medical and surgical management of reproductive disorders, as well as coverage of associated imaging modalities. The book includes chapters on major reproductive endocrinology and infertility issues such as polycystic ovary syndrome and amenorrhea, management of endometriosis and fibroids (including interventional radiology), imaging modalities such as ultrasonography and sonohysterography, preservation of fertility, and recurrent pregnancy loss. Residents, fellows, and practitioners interested in reproductive endocrinology and infertility will find this focused and practical text invaluable.

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a classic female infertility condition affecting an estimated 6-10% of all women, many of whom are unaware of the problem. A disease that affects women from adolescence to menopause, PCOS is the single most common endrocrinologic abnormality affecting women. This book is an edited collection of writings that comprehensively covers the disease, from diagnosis and epidemiology of PCOS to clinical evaluation.

determined by an inability to move in response to touch. C. elegans develop through four larval stages following hatching and prior to adulthood. Adult C. elegans are reproductive for about the rst week of adulthood followed by approximately two weeks of post-reproductive adulthood prior to death. Life span is most commonly measured in the laboratory by maintaining the worms on the surface of a nutrie- agar medium (Nematode Growth Medium, NGM) with E. coli OP50 as the bacterial food source (REF). Alternative culture conditions have been described in liquid media; however, these are not widely used for longevity studies. Longevity of the commonly used wild type C. elegans hermaphrodite (N2) varies ? from 16 to 23 days under standard laboratory conditions (20 C, NGM agar, E. coli OP50 food source). Life span can be increased by maintaining animals at lower ambient temperatures and shortened by raising the ambient temperature. Use of a killed bacterial food source, rather than live E. coli, increases lifespan by 2-4 days, and growth of adult animals in the absence of bacteria (axenic growth or bac- rial deprivation) increases median life span to 32-38 days [3, 23, 24]. Under both standard laboratory conditions and bacterial deprivation conditions, wild-derived C. elegans hermaphrodites exhibit longevity comparable to N2 animals [25].

Expectations of the potential of regenerative medicine have risen recently because of exciting research results. This book contains contributions from leading researchers who describe their successes and the problems that remain in converting the hopes into concrete therapies. The focus of the book is on the role of stem cells in two main areas -- reproduction and the brain -- described from molecular, cellular, in vivo and clinical perspectives.

This book investigates the various processes that are affected by the age of an organism. Several new tools for the analysis of biological aging have been introduced recently, and this volume provides methods and protocols for these new techniques in addition to its coverage of established procedures. Researchers seeking new technology and techniques will find this volume of tremendous benefit as they move towards new directions.

Kisspeptin has been shown to be both necessary and sufficient for activation of the reproductive axis, during puberty and later in adulthood. This makes kisspeptin a fundamental component of the reproductive axis. Kisspeptin has been deemed the single most potent stimulator of GnRH neurons yet known. The importance of kisspeptin has been documented in humans as well as non-human animal models, ranging from monkeys, sheep, and rodents to numerous fish species, thus signifying a highly conserved nature of its reproductive function. Importantly, kisspeptin neurons seem to mediate many of the regulatory effects of other signals, whether they are metabolic, circadian, hormonal, or stress. This places kisspeptin neurons in a unique position to be key nodal points and conduits for conveying numerous endogenous and exogenous signals to the reproductive axis.

"Tissue Morphogenesis: Methods and Protocols "highlights major techniques, both experimental and computational, for the study of tissue morphogenesis, divided into several sections, with specific focus on techniques to image, manipulate, model and analyze tissue morphogenesis. Chapters focus on imagining analysis of tissue morphogenesis, culture models of tissue morphogenesis, manipulating cells and tissues in vivo, novel model systems to investigate issue morphogenesis and computational models. Written in the highly successful "Methods in Molecular Biology "series format, chapters include introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step, readily reproducible laboratory protocols and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls.

Authoritative and practical," ""Tissue Morphogenesis: Methods and Protocols" serves as a primary resource for both fundamental and practical understanding of the techniques used to uncover the basis of tissue morphogenesis.

This text provides a comprehensive summary of research and findings that have lead to the current understanding of the subventricular zones. It provides an overview of the roles of subventricular zones in normal development and in disease and a foundation from which current and future studies can be evaluated.

Part of a new series on reproductive medicine, this book is a complete guide to the diagnosis and management of infertility. Beginning with an overview of infertility in both women and men, the next chapters discuss assessment and ultrasound. The following chapters cover numerous causes of infertility, and their diagnosis and treatment, examining both medical and lifestyle issues. The book presents the latest advances in the field and each chapter includes key points and references for further reading. Clinical photographs, diagrams and tables further enhance the comprehensive text. Other titles in the series include: Practical Guide in Reproductive Surgery, Practical Guide in Assisted Reproductive Technology and Practical Guide in Andrology and Embryology. Key points Comprehensive guide to diagnosis and management of infertility Part of new series on reproductive medicine Covers numerous causes of infertility, and their diagnosis and treatment Chapters include key points and detailed references for further reading

Microsurgery for Fertility Specialists is an invaluable resource for physicians who specialize in the surgical treatment of male and female infertility. This practical text explains the basics of microsurgery and provides detailed operative descriptions of surgical procedures such as vasectomy reversal, sperm retrieval, tubal reanastomosis, and penile surgery. An exceptional cadre of reproductive specialists shares valuable knowledge of the current state of microsurgery, its role in infertility procedures, and the latest advances in the field --including some non-infertility microsurgical techniques. The book is an essential educational guide for those with a more advanced knowledge of microsurgical practice as it includes chapters that will help them mentor residents and fellows, and inspire future generations of reproductive surgeons.

This volume covers data describing the role of free radicals and antioxidants that deal with clinical and pre-clinical trials, as well as basic research in the area of women's health. There is increasing evidence that oxidative stress is a causative, or at least a supporting factor in female pathology and infertility. During advancing gestational age, oxidative stress biomakers rise. Oxidative stress plays a regulatory role in transcription, signal transduction, gene expression and membrane trafficking. A search on Pub Med shows 449 papers have been published to date related to women's health disorders and use of antioxidants in a variety of disease that are prevalent in women, such as hypertension and cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, obesity and restless leg syndrome.

Late aging associated changes in alcohol sensitivity, neurobehavioral function, and neuroinflammation, Volume 148, the latest release in the International Review of Neurobiology series, highlights new advances in the field, with this new volume presenting interesting chapters on a variety of timely topics. Each chapter is written by an international board of authors.

Carl Edward Sagan's (1934-1996) one of the famous quotation was "Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people." From past to date, well-known molecules, enzymes, proteins, lipids and carbohydrates are studied in the pathogenesis of several diseases both as a diagnostic/prognostic biomarker and therapeutic agent. The underlying mechanism of unexplained diseases and failure of therapies are frequently studied with well-known biomarkers, but remain unclear in many cases. As Dr. Sagan said other keys are still waiting to be known in some forgotten corner of a body universe, we find strength to propose that one of them can be the growth factor with cytokine activity named "Midkine" This book summarizes the extensive up-to-date literature overeview with the lastest work of experts about midkine in a detailed format that conveys its role as both a pathologic factor and therapeutic agent.

In his 35 years of teaching medical students and trainees Professor Gabor Kovacs, International Medical Director of Monash IVF, has devised a system of lectures which cover the entire core curriculum in Obstetrics and Gynaecology. The principle behind these lectures is to help the student understand various aspects of the specialty, rather than simply learning the key topics, and encourages ongoing problem solving as well as a more logical approach. Each of the lectures have been based around highly informative diagrams and tables, and each syndrome follows a set template making each topic very understandable and easy to assimilate. This will be an invaluable text for medical students, nursing and midwifery students, trainees in obstetrics and gynaecology as well as sexual and reproductive health, general and nurse practitioners.

"Studies on Men s Health and Fertility "provides a comprehensive series of up-to-the-minute reviews addressing the role of oxidative stress in the aetiology of reproductive pathologies in the male. This volume represents by far the most detailed, authoritative review of the field that has been produced to date. The text encompasses the basic science of reactive oxygen species (ROS) production by mammalian spermatozoa, the way in which these highly reactive molecules are processed by the germ line and the physiological significance of this redox activity in the generation of a functional gamete. The factors responsible for perturbing the delicate balance between physiological redox signaling on the one hand and oxidative stress on the other are also extensively reviewed and some of the first clues concerning the underlying mechanisms (age, heat, infection, cryostorage, aberrant lipid metabolism), clearly identified. From a clinical perspective there are chapters setting out the methods we should be using to diagnose oxidative stress in the male germ line, a clinical perspective on the aetiology of this condition and detailed considerations of the most suitable means of ameliorating such stress from a therapeutic point of view.

"Studies on Men s Health and Fertility "is intended to provide clinicians and scientists with a snap shot of the current status of this exciting, rapidly moving field. The book will be of value to clinicians interested in strategies for the management of oxidative stress in their infertility patients and scientists wishing to understand the molecular mechanisms underpinning the generation of ROS by these cells and its pathophysiological significance. It was not so long ago that the ability of spermatozoa to generate ROS was a hotly disputed topic. With the publication of this book such doubts can finally be laid to rest. There is now no doubt that these cells actively generate ROS, that oxidative stress is a major contributor to defects in male reproductive health and that the successful clinical management of this condition depends on developing a deeper understanding of the underlying molecular mechanisms. In this quest, "Studies on Men s Health and Fertility "will be seen as a clear and important milestone. "

How do rapid social and technological changes shape reproductive realms today? This book considers the complex choices, anxieties and challenges that come alongside postmodern reproduction for women and men in the West. Topics include surrogacy, fatherhood, sperm banking, egg donation, contraception, breastfeeding, and postpartum body image.

Women with chronic medical problems are at higher risk for complications during pregnancy and, therefore, they are especially in need of appropriate preconception and contraception care. Furthermore, many women with chronic medical problems do not obtain adequate preconception and contraception care. Despite published guidelines by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there is a substantial gap in medical practice regarding the use of contraception in women with co-existing medical problems. Contraception for the Medically Challenging Patient fills the gap that currently exists in the knowledge of correct contraceptive prescribing practice and shows that inappropriate contraindications can easily become a barrier to effective contraception use among women. Chapters highlight obsolete views about appropriate candidates for contraception and address the complex contraceptive needs of today's medically challenging patients with HIV/AIDS, uterine fibroids, or cardiac, neurologic or thyroid disease. The book gives attention to recommendations on the use of contraception in women with medical problems such as diabetes, obesity, epilepsy, and lupus, among others, and provides comprehensive information regarding the effects that certain drugs may have on contraceptive hormone levels. While national guidelines do exist for contraceptive eligibility, this book discusses in more detail the evidence behind the guideline recommendations and the nuances that clinicians confront in daily practice.