Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Reproductive ageing

Of worms and women

Nature volume 468, pages 386–387 (2010)Cite this article

Subjects

In roundworms, age-related decline in egg quality is regulated by specific humoral signalling pathways. If similar mechanisms operate in mammals, these findings may suggest ways to delay reproductive ageing in women.

Female mammals are not alone in experiencing an age-related increase in birth defects and decline in fertility; the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans faces similar reproductive challenges in mid-adulthood. Writing in Cell, Luo et al.1 report that, in C. elegans, the age-related decline in oocyte (egg) quality and increase in chromosomal abnormalities are regulated by evolutionarily conserved signal-transduction pathways. If this senescence mechanism is also conserved, age-related decline in the quality of mammalian oocytes may not be, as is commonly thought, simply due to the old age of these cells or the diminishing size of the ovarian follicle pool; it may also be influenced by molecular signalling cascades.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Get just this article for as long as you need it

$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Neuroendocrine regulation of reproductive ageing1.

References

  1. Luo, S., Kleemann, G. A., Ashraf, J. M., Shaw, W. M. & Murphy, C. T. Cell 143, 299–312 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Hughes, S. E., Evason, K., Xiong, C. & Kornfeld, K. PLoS Genet. 3, e25 (2007).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Luo, S., Shaw, W. M., Ashraf, J. & Murphy C. T. PLoS Genet. 5, e1000789 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. te Velde, E. R. & Pearson, P. L. Hum. Reprod. Update 8, 141–154 (2002).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Downs, J. L. & Wise, P. M. Mol. Cell. Endocrinol. 299, 32–38 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Meredith, S., Dudenhoeffer, G., Butcher, R. L., Lerner, S. P. & Walls, T. Biol. Reprod. 47, 162–168 (1992).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Slot, K. A. et al. Reproduction 131, 525–532 (2006).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Tatar, M. Ann. NY Acad. Sci. 1204, 149–155 (2010).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Kevin Flurkey and David E. Harrison are in The Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, Maine 04609, USA. david.harrison@jax.org,

    Kevin Flurkey & David E. Harrison

Authors
  1. Kevin Flurkey
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. David E. Harrison
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Flurkey, K., Harrison, D. Of worms and women. Nature 468, 386–387 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/468386a

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/468386a

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing