Infertility is one of the leading health problems in India as well as globally. With increased pollution and change in the life style, reproductive health of human beings is on the decline. A recent report suggests that about 15–20 million people in India are infertile. Intrauterine insemination (IUI) and assisted reproductive technology (ART) involving, in vitro fertilization (IVF) and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) have become a ray of hope for millions of infertile couple. Ovulation induction and superovulation in infertile women is a common procedure before IUI or IVF/ICSI respectively. But despite advances in the past 3 decades, the success rate of IUI and IVF is limited by low success rates (~10-15% and 30-35% respectively) due to which most of the times infertile women have to undergo repeated ovulation induction or superovulation. Under these circumstances, microtrauma caused to the ovarian epithelium by repeated, uninterrupted ovulation and supraphysiological hormonal levels may increase the risk of cancer in hormone responsive organ such as ovary. Earlier studies reported in the literature and a recent work done in our laboratory have revealed significant changes in the oocyte quality, developmental potential of the embryos and increased genomic instability in somatic cells of Swiss albino mouse subjected to repeated superovulation. The preliminary study conducted in our laboratory has shown that the mouse oocytes subjected to repeated superovulation had significantly higher ROS level, increase in oocyte diameter with large perivitelline space and altered distribution pattern of mitochondria. The embryos derived from such oocytes had lower blastocyst rate and delay in cleavage rate (Personal observation). However, there is no information available in the literature to indicate whether these changes induced by repeated superovulation have any adverse effect on the progenies either at early developmental stage or at later stages.

Tuberculosis is the most common respiratory transmitted disease affecting nearly 32% of the world’s population out of which 95% of the new cases are reported from developing countries every year. Approximately one million young men and women per year are victimized with this disease in the developing world. The incidence of this disease is very high in India where there is dense population, poor nutrition, and poor sanitation. Chemotherapy is the common and effective treatment modality available for tuberculosis treatment. The important first-line antitubercular drugs available today are streptomycin, isoniazid, rifampicin, ethambutol and pyrazinamide. Although the systemic toxicity of these agents has been reported by earlier studies, there is not much scientific information on the effect of these agents on the gonads, fertility potential among these victims and effect on offspring. To address these issues we are trying to understand the consequences of antituberculosis treatment on both male and female reproductive potential using mouse model, which is timely and important aspect in Indian context.

The success of infertility treatments like intrauterine insemination, in vitro fertilization and intracytoplasmic sperm injection are mainly dependent on the sperm motility, its ability to undergo capacitation and acrosome reaction etc. Most of the infertile men have a poor sperm function. In such cases enhancing their ability by treating with any agents under in vitro conditions certainly helps in increasing the chances of conception. Earlier studies have shown that pharmacological agents like pentoxifylline, caffeine and 2-deoxy adenosine can improve the function of spermatozoa in vitro. However, due to their deleterious effect on early embryo development, their application is limited. This study aims at improving the sperm function of infertile men by supplementing a B-complex vitamin, biotin, during sperm preparations. Since biotin is an essential micronutrient required for normal development and highly water soluble, it can be a safe agent. The present investigation is an attempt to analyze whether biotin can enhance the sperm function of infertile men and what is its mechanism of action.

Chemotherapy is still one of the major treatment modality either as single treatment modality or in combination with other modalities such as surgery and /or radiotherapy. With improvement in technology, better understanding of the pathogenesis of cancer and increased awareness among the people has led to increase in long term cancer survivors. Most of the cancer survivors may wish to have their progeny in their reproductive age. However, the poor quality of gametes or total loss of gametogenesis following chemotherapy can lead to infertility. Therefore, post chemotherapy effect on quality of gametes and fertility preservation have become important issues in the area of reproductive medicine as quality and number of spermatozoa plays an important role on the reproductive outcome. Moringa Oleifera is a plant with potential medicinal properties. Various parts of the plant such as root, leaves, bark, flower and fruits have been used in the preparation of traditional Ayurvedic medicines for treating various diseases. The leaves are of high nutrition value and are rich source of -carotene, protein, vitamin C, calcium and potassium and act as a good source of natural antioxidants. Our aim is to exploit the medicinal property of this plant in protecting the gonadal tissue from chemotherapy (cyclophosphamide) induced damage. In addition understanding the mechanism of chemoprotection offered by this extract and identification and isolation of the active component of the leaf extract responsible for chemoprotection is the aim of this project.

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Jeena Sara Thomas