Bioscientifica Proceedings

Secreted peptide hormones and components of the steroidogenic machinery are molecules that are expressed usually in high amounts and in a time- and cell-specific fashion within the cells that give rise to the bovine corpus luteum. They thus serve as useful markers for the events occurring within the nuclei of these cells that result in differentiation and the expression of the specific luteal phenotype. We have studied the bovine genes of three such luteal products: oxytocin, ...

Since 35 years ago boar semen has been frozen and used for artificial insemination (Al). However, fertility of cryopreserved porcine sperm has consistently been low as boar sperm are more sensitive to cellular stress imposed by changing osmotic balance, oxidative stress, low-temperature exposure, cryo-protectant intoxication etc. and are less able to compensate for these deficiencies at commercially applicable dosages. Additionally, differences in sperm freezability amon...