Otago study may be key to new infertility treatment

University of Otago physiologist Prof Allan Herbison reflects on Otago research which highlights...
University of Otago physiologist Prof Allan Herbison reflects on Otago research which highlights a key new role for the brain chemical kisspeptin in human fertility. Photo by Peter McIntosh.
A discovery by University of Otago scientists could result in new treatments for infertility.

An Otago University group, led by Prof Allan Herbison, of the physiology department, has shown for the first time the key ovulation-triggering role of kisspeptin, which is a small protein molecule in the brain.

In 2003, researchers overseas found that the then recently-discovered molecule, dubbed kisspeptin, was vitally important in kick-starting puberty.

The Otago group, working with Cambridge University researchers, has now just published the first evidence that kisspeptin signalling in the brain is also essential for ovulation to occur in adults.

Studying female mice, the researchers found that signalling between kisspeptin and its cell receptor, GPR54, was essential to activate gonadotrophin-releasing hormone (GnRH) neurons, the nerve cells known to initiate ovulation.

The research appears in the latest issue of the prestigious Journal of Neuroscience.

"This is an exciting finding, as people have been trying to find out precisely how the brain controls ovulation for more than 30 years," Prof Herbison said.

He was delighted to be contributing to a field in which Otago researchers were international leaders.

"We're doing this research to make a difference to the health of people.

"You don't die of infertility but it causes a huge amount of grief and unhappiness."

Unfortunately, infertility rates had been "going up enormously" throughout the world.

A recent survey showed that 20% of New Zealand women had approached medical services for help over infertility concerns.

He was optimistic that within about five years a new drug treatment could be developed to help overcome infertility problems arising from a "miscommunication between the brain and the ovaries".

This "miscommunication" affected about a quarter of New Zealand couples who had infertility problems, he said.

The latest study indicated that disorders affecting the signalling between kisspeptin and the GPR54 receptors would result in women being unable to ovulate.

"Targeting drugs to this chemical switch to make it work properly may help some people who are infertile, while finding compounds that can block this switch could lead to new contraceptives," he said.

The Otago research was supported by the Health Research Council of New Zealand and the Marsden Fund.

 

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