 News
23rd November 2006
Damaged egg clue to female infertility
Scientists have identified a protein which they believe is involved in
the 'quality control' of eggs.
Researchers from Harvard Medical School believe the protein
p63 plays a key part in detecting damaged eggs and hope that the discovery
will lead to advances in the treatment of female infertility.
Although eggs, also known as oocytes, begin to develop before
birth, they go through a period of meiosis where cell division eventually
leads to one mature egg with just one set of chromosomes.
This process stops for a period of time and is completed
after puberty.
The researchers identified p63 as being responsible for
weeding out defective eggs.
Lead researcher, Dr Frank McKeon said, "Thus p63 is the
critical factor for monitoring the level of DNA damage in oocytes and
deciding whether it is better to kill them rather than risking the transmission
of mutations to the next generation."
He also added that they believe the protein evolved specifically
to protect egg cells from mutations at least 800 million years ago.
Dr Allan Pacey, Secretary of the British Fertility Society,
said, "This is an interesting paper which sheds light on the process by
which the ovary can quality-control the eggs it contains to make sure
that damaged ones are not ovulated.
"The production of eggs is more complex than sperm production
because the immature eggs remain in the ovary for such a long period of
time.
"This makes them vulnerable to DNA damage which could lead
to infertility or affect the health of any babies born if there is not
a process to repair or remove them before ovulation.
"This work helps us to understand the egg quality control
process better and might one day allow us to understand why some women
have fertility problems because of the poor quality of the eggs they ovulate."
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