Mechanisms of reproductive aging in the females

Abstract

Aging is a developmental process occurring in all living organisms after reaching a critical developmental stage, characterized by progressive loss of functions until death. Different cells/tissues age differently depending on epigenetics and cell-cell interactions. While males maintain fertility for the most part of their life females only maintain reproductive ability for a short time compared with their lifespan. The interesting question is why and how the females lose fertility so quickly. There have been many hypotheses proposed from different perspectives and recent research has revealed unusual interactions between germ cells and somatic cells which may determine the lifespan of reproduction in the females. This review briefly discusses recent progress in reproductive aging in the well studied model, C. elegans, and focuses on the molecular mechanisms which may be conserved across all animals including humans. aging, females, oocytes, lifespan, growth factors, mTOR Citation:Deng M Q. Mechanisms of reproductive aging in the females. Sci China Life Sci, 2012, 55: 653 -658,

Sex ratio at mating does not modulate age fitness effects in Drosophila melanogaster

“…Both male and female reproductive success is expected to decrease with age due to a functional decline in pre‐ and postcopulatory reproductive processes and/or in other phenotypic traits with indirect effects on reproductive success, such as exploratory activity, locomotion, perception, or immunity (Monaghan, Charmantier, Nussey, & Ricklefs, ; Nussey, Froy, Lemaitre, Gaillard, & Austad, ; Pizzari, Dean, Pacey, Moore, & Bonsall, ; Reznick, Bryant, Roff, Ghalambor, & Ghalambor, ). Many studies have explored how female age can reduce fertility and fecundity (David, Cohet, & Fouillet, ; Deng, ; Holmes, Thomson, Wu, & Ottinger, ), or how male age can decrease copulation success, fertilizing ability, and sperm competition (Service & Fales, ; Economos, Miquel, Binnard, & Kessler, ; Kühnert & Nieschlag, ). More recent studies have further investigated how female and male age can decrease offspring viability by focusing on underlying pre‐ and postmeiotic aging processes (Firman, Young, Rowe, Duong, & Gasparini, ; Pizzari et al, ; Tan, Pizzari, & Wigby, ).…”

CircRNA‐associated ceRNA regulatory networks as emerging mechanisms governing the development and biophysiopathology of epilepsy

“…Among these mechanisms, small noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) measuring [20][21][22][23][24] base pairs, such as miRNA, have been extensively investigated and are recognized as the most thoroughly studied regulators of gene expression in various diseases. [12][13][14][15][16][17] Recent research suggests that circRNA modulates gene expression more precisely than other types of ncR-NAs. 18,19 Typically, circRNAs can join forces with RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) (Figure 1) to form protein complexes that control the transcriptional and parental linear genes' post-transcriptional expression.…”

Development of adverse outcome pathways relevant for the identification of substances having endocrine disruption properties Uterine adenocarcinoma as adverse outcome

“…Ageing is a developmental process occurring in all living organisms characterised by progressive loss of functions until death. Reproductive ageing in females is a decline and cessation of reproduction long before somatic ageing occurs (Deng, 2012 ) and it is a complex process involving progressive ovarian dysfunction and an altered capacity of the hypothalamic–pituitary axis to respond to estradiol (Downs and Wise, 2009 ). Common features of reproductive ageing in different animals include progressive loss of oocytes number and quality, frequent chromosome segregation errors leading to aneuploidy, and loss of endocrinological function of the ovaries.…”