Medical News
Treatment to restore egg quality
means hope for older mothers
In a new study, a metabolic compound halts the ageing process of eggs in mice
R
esearchers have increased fertility rates in older
female mice with small doses of a metabolic
compound that reverses the ageing process
of eggs, offering hope for some women struggling to
conceive.
Poor egg quality has become the single biggest
challenge facing human fertility in developed
countries. It’s also a growing issue, as more women
choose to save pregnancy for later in life.
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In Australia, where the study was carried out, one
in four women who undergo IVF treatment are aged 40
or older.
The University of Queensland study found that a
non-invasive treatment could maintain or restore the
quality and number of eggs and alleviate the biggest
barrier to pregnancy for older women.
A team led by Dr Hayden Homer from the
university’s Centre for Clinical Research found that the
loss of egg quality through ageing was due to lower
levels of the nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, or
NAD, molecule in cells critical for generating energy.
“Quality eggs are essential for pregnancy success
because they provide virtually all the building blocks
required by an embryo,” he explained at the launch of
the study. “We investigated whether the reproductive
ageing process could be reversed by an oral dose of
a ‘precursor’ compound used by cells to create the
molecule.”
Professor Homer said fertility in mice starts to
decline from around one year of age due to defects
in egg quality similar to changes observed in human
eggs from older women.
“We treated the mice with low doses of the
precursor in their drinking water over four weeks, and
we were able to dramatically restore egg quality and
increase live births during a breeding trial,” he said.
Since IVF cannot improve egg quality, the only
alternative for older women at present is to use eggs
donated by younger women. The latest findings
suggest, though, there is an opportunity to restore
egg quality and reproductive function using orally
administered NAD-boosting agents, which would be
far less invasive than IVF.
Although promising, the potential benefits of these
agents remain to be tested in clinical trials.
“There’s no truth in the belief that children will be
harmed if more older mothers have babies. They might
not be able to keep up with physical demands, but
people are living longer and a 50-year-old mother can
expect to stay around at least until her child is in their
thirties,” Dr Homer told Global Health Asia-Pacific.
“And while older mothers do have higher risk of
complications, especially if they have pre-existing
conditions, like diabetes or higher blood pressure,
most of them won’t experience this. About 80 percent
of women over 45 have no major medical problems
during pregnancy and more than that give birth at full
term.”
GlobalHealthAndTravel.com
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