Telomeres and Reproduction in Women

The chances of conception decrease and miscarriage increase with a women's age, and the locus of reproductive aging is the egg (1). Egg dysfunction affects most women beginning by their late '30's and for many women age related egg dysfunction represents a major cause of infertility. The cause of age related egg dysfunction is poorly understood, but telomere dysfunction may play an important role. Our group has demonstrated that genetic or pharmacologic shortening of telomeres in the eggs of mice, which normally do not exhibit age related egg dysfunction, mimics reproductive aging in women, with cell cycle arrest, apoptosis, spindle dysmorphologies and chromosomal abnormalities (1,2). Moreover, a pilot study the investigators conducted five years ago suggested that telomere length of spare human eggs may predict the outcome of womens' InVitro Fertilization (IVF) cycles (3). Subsequently, other investigators have demonstrated that telomere length of circulating leukocytes predicts miscarriages (4).