Oogonial stem cells as a model to study age-associated infertility in women
Neha Garg A B D and David A. Sinclair A B C
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A Glenn Laboratories for the Biological Mechanisms of Aging, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
B Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
C Department of Pharmacology, School of Medical Sciences, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia.
D Corresponding author. Email: neha_garg@hms.harvard.edu
Reproduction, Fertility and Development 27(6) 969-974 https://doi.org/10.1071/RD14461
Submitted: 21 November 2014 Accepted: 14 March 2015 Published: 22 April 2015
Abstract
Fertility is the first biological process to break down during aging, thereby making it a useful tool to understand fundamental processes of aging. Reproductive aging in females is associated with a loss of ovarian function characterised by a reduction in the number and quality of oocytes. The central dogma, namely that females are born with a fixed pool of oocytes that progressively decline with increasing maternal age, has been challenged by evidence supporting postnatal oogenesis in mammals. Reports demonstrating formation of new oocytes from newly discovered germline stem cells, referred to as oogonial stem cells (OSCs), has opened new avenues for treatment of female infertility. In this review we discuss why the OSCs possibly lose their regenerative potential over time, and focus specifically on the aging process in germline stem cells as a possible mechanism for understanding female age-related infertility and how we can slow or delay ovarian aging.
Additional keywords: germline stem cells, meiosis, oocyte, postnatal oogenesis.
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