Influence of the insemination method on the outcomes of elective blastocyst culture

Wang, Caizhu,Feng, Guixue,Zhang, Bo,Shu, Jinhui,Zhou, Hong,Gan, Xianyou,Lin, Ruoyun The Korean Society for Reproductive Medicine 2017 Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine Vol.44 No.2

Objective: The aim of this study was to explore the effects of the insemination method on the outcomes of elective blastocyst culture. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the outcomes of elective blastocyst culture performed between January 2011 and December 2014. Results: There were 2,003 cycles of conventional in vitro fertilization (IVF) and 336 cycles of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), including 25,652 and 4,164 embryos that underwent sequential blastocyst culture, respectively. No significant differences were found in the female patients' age, basal follicle-stimulating hormone level, basal luteinizing hormone level, body mass index, number of oocytes, maturity rate, fertilization rate, or good-quality embryo rate. However, the blastocyst formation rate and embryo utilization rate were significantly higher in the conventional IVF group than in the ICSI group (54.70% vs. 50.94% and 51.09% vs. 47.65%, respectively, p<0.05). The implantation/pregnancy rate (IVF, 50.93%; ICSI, 55.10%), miscarriage rate (IVF, 12.57%; ICSI, 16.29%), and live birth rate (IVF, 42.12%; ICSI, 44.08%) were similar (p>0.05). No cycles were canceled due to the formation of no usable blastocysts. Conclusion: Although the fertilization method had no effect on clinical outcomes, the blastocyst formation rate and embryo utilization rate in the ICSI group were significantly lower than those observed in the conventional IVF group. Therefore, more care should be taken when choosing to perform blastocyst culture in ICSI patients.

First-principles study on the doping effects of Al in a-MnO2

Zhenhua Yang,Xianyou Wang,Yunqing Huang 한국물리학회 2015 Current Applied Physics Vol.15 No.11

In this paper, first-principles calculations have been implemented to study the structural relaxation, formation energies and electronic structure of Al doped a-MnO2. Both Al insertion and Al substitution reactions in the a-MnO2 were considered. Calculated formation energies indicate that Mn atom is easier to be displaced by Al atom under the O-rich growth condition compared with Al insertion reaction. Besides, it can be found that Al doping can afford acceptor impurity level which can accommodate electrons, thus contributing to the improvement of conductivity of a-MnO2. The conductivity of a-MnO2 is gradually improved with the increasing doping concentration of Al, and Al0.0417Mn0.9583O2 exhibits the best conductivity. Lastly, the electronic structure of Al0.0417Mn0.9583O2 was further investigated by analysis of total charge density and Bader charge. It is clear that Al doping can afford more electrons for a-MnO2, which also contributes to improvement of its conductivity.

Atomic insights into regulation of graphene sheets vertically attached to the FeF3·0.33H2O (002) surface by cation doping

Yanjun Pan,Yang Li,Jinda Luo,Xianyou Wang,Zhenhua Yang 한국물리학회 2019 Current Applied Physics Vol.19 No.10

Tightly and vertically attached graphene nanosheets (GNS) on the surface of FeF3·0.33H2O is extremely desirable to substantially accelerate electron transport, promoting rate capability of FeF3·0.33H2O. Based on present experiment and calculated surface energies, firstly, it has confirmed that F-terminated FeF3·0.33H2O (002) surface (FeF3·0.33H2O (002)-F) is more stable than FeF-terminated FeF3·0.33H2O (002) surface (FeF3·0.33H2O (002)- FeF) when μF varies from −1.92 eV to −0.30 eV. Then, by analysis of the interfacial structure and adsorption energies, it was proposed that GNS is incline to stand vertically on the FeF3·0.33H2O (002) surface via C–F bond. However, structural stability of FeF3·0.33H2O/GNS heterostructure is gradually weakened with increasing the number of GNS layers. Therefore, we further reported the important role of optimal doping element (Hf) in strengthening the vertical adsorption behavior of GNS on FeF3·0.33H2O (002) surface via thorough doping element search. And it turns out interfacial structure with hexa-coordinate polyhedron consists of Hf, F and O atoms is formed by strong hybridization of atomic orbits, which induces the interaction between FeF3·0.33H2O (002) surface and GNS to be profoundly strengthened.

A point of confusion for embryologists in the identification of viable spermatozoa by the eosin-nigrosin test

Chen, Huanhua,Zhou, Hong,Shu, Jinhui,Gan, Xianyou,Wang, Caizhu,Lin, Ruoyun The Korean Society for Reproductive Medicine 2019 Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine Vol.46 No.1

A viable spermatozoon is a prerequisite for fertilization in intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). Thus, it is crucial to select viable but immotile spermatozoa on the day of ICSI. We report conflicting results in the identification of viable but immotile spermatozoa between the eosin-nigrosin staining and the laser test, which resulted in confusion for embryologists during assisted reproductive technology (ART). Three patients' semen samples that showed no motile spermatozoa are described in this report. To identify viable spermatozoa, we used both the eosin-nigrosin test and the laser test for each sample, and repeated the semen analysis twice in each patient. Viable but immotile spermatozoa selected by the laser test were used for ICSI. Viable spermatozoa were detected by both the eosin-nigrosin and laser tests in two patients (case 1, 95.00% vs. 24.21% and 92.68% vs. 22.22%; case 2, 41.18% vs. 23.48% and 39.81% vs. 22.52%), indicating consistent results between the two methods. In the third patient, the eosin-nigrosin test yielded viability rates of 20.75% and 19.14%, while the result of the laser test was 0%. Thus, testicular aspiration was performed to collect viable sperm from this patient. Normal fertilization was achieved after the injection of viable but immotile spermatozoa selected from these patients by the laser test, resulting in the birth of two healthy babies. Our study documents a case where the eosin-nigrosin test showed a limitation in identifying viable but immotile spermatozoa for ART, while the laser test may overcome this limitation. Larger samples may be required to corroborate the clinical value of the laser test.

Codon Optimization, Soluble Expression and Purification of PE_PGRS45 Gene from Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Preparation of Its Polyclonal Antibody Protein

( Tao Xu ),( Minying Li ),( Chutong Wang ),( Meili Yuan ),( Xianyou Chang ),( Zhongqing Qian ),( Baiqing Li ),( Meiqun Sun ),( Hongtao Wang ) 한국미생물 · 생명공학회 2021 Journal of microbiology and biotechnology Vol.31 No.11

Studies have demonstrated that PE_PGRS45 is constitutively expressed under various environmental conditions (such as nutrient depletion, hypoxia, and low pH) of the in vitro growth conditions examined, indicating that PE_PGRS45 protein is critical to the basic functions of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. However, there are few reports about the biochemical function and pathogenic mechanism of PE_PGRS45 protein. The fact that this M. tuberculosis gene is not easily expressed in E. coli may be mainly due to the high content of G+C and the use of unique codons. Fusion tags are indispensable tools used to improve the soluble expression of recombinant proteins and accelerate the characterization of protein structure and function. In the present study, His6, Trx, and His6-MBP were used as fusion tags, but only MBP-PE_PGRS45 was expressed solubly. The purification using His6-MBP tag-specific binding to the Ni column was easy to separate after the tag cleavage. We used the purified PE_PGRS45 to immunize New Zealand rabbits and obtained anti- PE_PGRS45 serum. We found that the titer of polyclonal antibodies against PE_PGR45 was higher than 1:256000. The result shows that purified PE_PGRS45 can induce New Zealand rabbits to produce high-titer antibodies. In conclusion, the recombinant protein PE_PGRS45 was successfully expressed in E. coli and specific antiserum was prepared, which will be followed by further evaluation of these specific antigens to develop highly sensitive and specific diagnostic tests for tuberculosis.

First-principles study of Ti doping in FeF3$0.33H2O

Zhenhua Yang,Zhijuan Zhang,Yalong Yuan,Yunqing Huang,Xianyou Wang,Xiaoying Chen,Shuangying Wei 한국물리학회 2016 Current Applied Physics Vol.16 No.8

The effect of Ti doping on the geometrical and electronic structures of FeF3$0.33H2O are systematically investigated by using the first principles calculations. We focused on TixFe1-xF3$0.33H2O systems, in which x is equal to 0, 0.08, 0.17 and 0.25, respectively. Different kinds of Ti dopant sites are checked and the most stable structure can be obtained by comparison of total energy. The crystal volume of TixFe1- xF3$0.33H2O expands gradually with increasing Ti doping concentration. Calculated formation energies indicate TixFe1-xF3 is easiest to fabricate and the difficulty of Ti doping FeF3 with hexagonal-tungstenbronze( HTB) structure decreases with the increase of Ti doping concentration under the Fe-rich and Ti-rich growth conditions. Moreover, TixFe1-xF3$0.33H2O is thermodynamically stable, indicating that water molecule can preferentially occupy one-dimensional cavity in the TixFe1-xF3. The band gap of TixFe1-xF3$0.33H2O decreases with increasing Ti doping concentration and Ti0.25Fe0.75F3$0.33H2O exhibits character of half metal, indicating that the conductivity of FeF3$0.33H2O can be improved by Ti-doping. Besides, it can be confirmed that Ti-doping also can broaden the hexagonal cavity in the FeF3$0.33H2O by analyzing the crystal structure of FeF3$0.33H2O and TixFe1-xF3$0.33H2O. With excellent conductivity and larger hexagonal cavity, TixFe1-xF3$0.33H2O can afford open diffusion channels. Therefore, Li ions can remain unblocked, which is beneficial to fast charge and discharge.