Female reproductive life span is extended by targeted removal of fibrotic collagen from the mouse ovary.

ABSTRACT: The female ovary contains a finite number of oocytes, and their release at ovulation becomes sporadic and disordered with aging and with obesity, leading to loss of fertility. Understanding the molecular defects underpinning this pathology is essential as age of childbearing and obesity rates increase globally. We identify that fibrosis within the ovarian stromal compartment is an underlying mechanism responsible for impaired oocyte release, which is initiated by mitochondrial dysfunction leading to diminished bioenergetics, oxidative damage, inflammation, and collagen deposition. Furthermore, antifibrosis drugs (pirfenidone and BGP-15) eliminate fibrotic collagen and restore ovulation in reproductively old and obese mice, in association with dampened M2 macrophage polarization and up-regu

SUBMITTER: Umehara T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9205599 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature