An important feature for life is what embryos receive from mom and dad upon fertilization. Oddly enough, centrioles, the structures responsible for cell division and flagella movement, are given by the paternal gamete. How oocytes, the maternal gametes, lose centrioles and the importance of doing so for female fertility has been an enigma since the 1930s. A team led by Mónica Bettencourt-Dias at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (IGC; Portugal) have cracked this mystery, shedding light upon a critical mechanism whose deregulation leads to infertility, and that is important for the working of other cell types.
Tag: female fertility
IVF in Women Over 38: The Doctor’s Dilemma
It is a biological fact that female fertility declines with age – in assisted conception as in natural. Indeed, findings from a 12-year study reported today at the Annual Meeting of ESHRE by Dr Marta Devesa from the Hospital Universitaro Quiron-Dexeus in Barcelona, Spain, showed that in her own clinic cumulative live birth rates following IVF declined from 23.6% in women aged 38-39 years to 1.3% in those aged 44 and over.
Study Shows Impact of Stress on Male Fertility
While the impact of stress on female fertility is well documented, there’s now a growing body of research finding similar effects on male fertility.
Male Hormones Play Vital Role in Female Fertility
The University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry announced on March 3 that a team from the school has published a groundbreaking study revealing the importance of male hormones in female fertility. The study is titled “Androgens regulate ovarian follicular development by increasing follicle stimulating hormone receptor and microRNA-125b expression” and was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Male Hormones Play Vital Role in Female Fertility
The University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry announced on March 3 that a team from the school has published a groundbreaking study revealing the importance of male hormones in female fertility. The study is titled “Androgens regulate ovarian follicular development by increasing follicle stimulating hormone receptor and microRNA-125b expression” and was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Health Check: When Does Fertility Decline?
It’s said that ’40 is the new 30′ and ’50 is the new 40′. But, when it comes to female fertility, 40 is still 40, and the likelihood of successful pregnancy and childbirth has notably decreased from age 30.
The Trouble With Talking About Fertility
In these progressive times in which women and men are delaying marriage and children, too, the topic of female fertility — and how it’s not going to be there forever, ladies! — seems to come up again and again.
Mice Experiment May Point to New Ways to Protect Female Fertility
(Reuters) – Egg cells can repair themselves from damage caused by radiation far better than doctors ever thought, a finding researchers say gives fresh hope in protecting women undergoing cancer therapy from infertility.
Although the experiments have only been in mice, researchers believe they have relevance for female cancer patients and women who suffer premature menopause, a condition that puts them at risk of early infertility, osteoporosis and heart disease.
In a paper to be published in the November 9 issue of the journal Molecular Cell, scientists in Australia found that egg cells, or oocytes, are killed not by radiation, but by two proteins — puma and noxa — which snap into action when they detect DNA damage to egg cells. Read full article.