WIKIMEDIA, MAGGIE BARTLETT/NHGRIObesity damages females’ developing oocytes even before they are fertilized, according to a mouse study published today (February 10) in Development. Eggs from obese mothers had mitochondrial defects, and the resulting offspring had fewer mitochondria than controls in liver and kidney tissue, indicating that during development, the mitochondria had failed to propagate.
“We now have information that health prior to conception is affecting the nutritional environment of the ovary, [that] it’s affecting the nutritional environment of the egg, and that signals are stored in that egg before it’s even fertilized,” said the University of Adelaide’s Rebecca Robker, who led the research. “And those get carried on into the embryo and are now showing into the offspring.”
The researchers also reported that they were able to reverse these problems using inhibitors of what’s called endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress—protein-processing problems in the ER that initiate a cascade of other cellular issues, include mitochondrial defects—suggesting both an explanation for the oocyte damage and a possible treatment.
Obesity is associated with infertility in humans, leading obese women to often turn to ...
