Unlocking Secrets to Extend Fertility With Long-Lived Proteins

Max Planck researchers have discovered that extremely long-lived proteins in the ovary may keep mammalian egg cells healthy and preserve fertility for a long time.

Female mammals – including humans – are born with all of their egg cells. Of a woman’s one to two million egg cells, about 400 mature before menopause and can be fertilized. Some egg cells therefore survive for several decades – and need to remain functional over this long time. Extremely long-lived proteins in the ovary seem to play an important role in this, as teams of researchers from Göttingen (Germany) have now discovered in experiments with mice. These long-lived proteins appear to help maintain fertility for as long as possible.

New findings on female fertility: Ovaries and egg cells in mice contain extremely long-lived proteins.
Age-related, harmful protein aggregation occurs less frequently in egg cells than in other tissues, such as the brain.
Long-lived proteins gradually disappearing from the ovaries and egg cells could explain why fertility declines with age.
Female Fertility and Egg Cell Longevity