It’s known that as a woman ages, it becomes more difficult to conceive or to produce healthy babies.
Researchers in Montreal, have come a step closer to understanding egg development and possibly someday treatments to improve the chances for successful conception.
The research was guided by Hugh Clarke (PhD), a professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, McGill University, Montreal, and research scientist at the Research Institute, McGill University Health Centre, (RI-MUHC).
ListenThe new research revealed that the mammalian egg itself plays an important role in manipulating its direct environment to ensure its health and fertility.
The research was published in the science journal Current Biology under the title, Mammalian Oocytes Locally Remodel Follicular Architecture to Provide the Foundation for Germline-Soma Communication. (abstract HERE)
It’s likely confusing for the non-scientist, but one of the mysteries science had was how nourishment gets from surrounding tissue into the developing egg or oocyte. What was known is that nourishment is provided by tiny “feeding tubes” which are created in cells surrounding the egg and which penetrate a protective wall coating the egg itself
What the research discovered is that the egg communicates to the cells through release of a chemical (growth-differentiation factor 9) which prompts the cells to create feeding tubes. As the egg develops and requires more nourishment the GDF-9 acts genetically on the follicle cells around the egg to create both more feeding tubes, and more of the cells.
In the study led by then PhD student Stephany El-Hayek, they found that in the mouse models used, the eggs of older mice produced fewer of the feeding tubes.
Professor Clarke says this new information about the communication between egg and follicle cells and feeding tubes is a step in understanding the fertility and health of mammalian eggs, as in humans.
With this new understanding, research is continuing towards uncovering other aspects of egg development and fertility.
This could lead to eventual technology enabling the retention of the fertility of eggs, and enabling older women to remain fertile longer. Additionally it could eventually also lead to techniques to grow healthy eggs in the laboratory in an effort to preserve fertility in women who have cancer, or other health issue that could at present or in future, affect the health of her eggs.
Funding for the research was provided for the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development of the National Institutes of Health and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).
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