The quality of egg cells declines as women age, probably partly because the cells' ability to repair DNA damage becomes impaired.
Kutluk Oktay at New York Medical College in Rye and his collaborators found that egg cells from older women have more DNA damage and lower expression of four DNA-repair genes, than those from younger women.
When the authors silenced these genes in mouse egg cells using short interfering RNA molecules, the egg cells were more prone to DNA damage and death. When they overexpressed one of these genes, BRCA1, the old mouse eggs became as robust as the young ones.
These results indicate that the decline in egg-cell quality may be reversible and could lead to treatments that prolong female fertility, say the authors.
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Broken DNA in ageing eggs. Nature 494, 284 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/494284c
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/494284c
