Clues to preventing infertility and age-related birth defects

A strategy that reduces age-related health problems in animal studies may also counter a major cause of age-associated infertility and even birth defects. Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have shown that limiting caloric intake of adult female mice prevents a broad spectrum of abnormalities that occur more frequently in older eggs.

“We found that we could completely prevent, in a mouse model, essentially every aspect of the declining egg quality typical of older females,” said Jonathan Tilly, PhD, director of the Vincent Center for Reproductive Biology in the MGH Vincent Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and lead on the study. “We also identified a gene that can be manipulated to reproduce the effects of dietary caloric restriction and improve egg quality in aging animals fed a normal diet, which gives us clues that we may be able to alter this highly regulated process with compounds now being developed to mimic the effects of caloric restriction.”

Many studies have shown that animals on a restricted diet live longer and are less susceptible to the ravages of aging. An earlier study by Tilly’s group showed that female mice on a restricted caloric intake through their adulthood maintained their fertility for longer.

“If we find a way to safely reproduce in humans the effects we see in this study -- and even though this is a mouse study, we know these age-related egg cell defects are also seen in humans -- we may be able to both improve a woman’s chance of getting pregnant and, for those who do need assisted reproductive technology, to improve the quality of the eggs we use to minimize if not eliminate the age-related increase in Down syndrome and other chromosomal disorders,” Tilly concluded.

Source: MGH, Science Daily