Area of research:

   The following is a brief description of research interests in the Department:

Teratology:

   In this field, teratogenic effects of drugs, chemicals, environmental factors and their mechanisms of action are being investigated. Factors such as hypothermia, antibiotics, morphine and electron magnetic field (EMF) and their effects on embryonic development have been investigated by Lm and EM.

Reprotoxicity:

    One of the well studied areas in this department is the adverse effects of environmental factors on male and female reproductive organs. In this field, the effect of electronmagnetic field (EMF) I widely investigated by LM, EM and histochmical techniques.

Pre-implantation:

   Any subject related to implantation such as endometrial condition, quality of blastocyst, factors that promote implantation and sperm quality are of research interest. Studied projects include the effects of ovulation-stimulating hormones on ultrastructural characteristics of endometrial epithelium on different phases, in vitro studies of blastocyst invasion and sperm and blastocyst freeze. In this field, the department has a link with the infertility center of women's hospital and access to IVF and microinjection equipments.

Cell biology:

   Morphological and histochemical study of cell injuries, cell behavior ad cell response to different stimuli is investigated.

Apoptosis:

   Apoptosis is studied using TUNEL technique and electron microscopy. The projects carried out in this field are: freezing induced apoptosis in blastocyst, eletronmagnetic field induced apoptosis in female organs, drug-induced apoptosis in reproductive organs.  

Cell culture:

   One o the new study area in the Department is to isolate and cultivate different cell types such as stem cells and chondrocytes from different sources such as young and adult cartilage, bone marrow, adipose tissue and umbilical cord blood and differentiate them to other cells. For obtaining stronger results in this field, the department is joined with Ludwig-Maximillians University of Munich in Germany and has some common research studies.

Tissue engineering:

   Another new established field of science in the Department is tissue engineering and preparing the cultivated cells for seeding on scaffolds and transplantation of this newly formed constructs in the lesion sites for regenerative medicine. For achieving this purpose, the department links with polymer department of Sahand University and texture department of Isfahan University.