A breakthrough by Otago University scientists could change the way infertility is treated.
Researchers there have shown, for the first time, the crucial ovulation-triggering role of a small protein molecule in the brain, dubbed kisspeptin.
In 2003, the then recently discovered molecule was found by overseas researchers to be vitally important in kick-starting puberty.
Now, an Otago group led by Professor Allan Herbison of the physiology department, in collaboration with Cambridge University researchers, have 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.
"This work now reveals a crucial link in the brain circuitry responsible."
The study indicates that disorders affecting the signalling between kisspeptin and the GPR54 receptors will 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."
As an approach to treating infertility in some women, it could allow for ovulation to be induced in a more natural way than current therapies, Prof Herbison said.
With infertility becoming an increasing problem for couples in western societies, there was a great deal of interest in developing new therapies.
Prof Herbison said his research group was now investigating what role kisspeptin-GPR54 signalling may play in the male reproductive system.
Kisspeptin was named in honour of Hershey Kisses, as Hershey was the town in the United States where the scientists who first discovered the molecule were based.
The latest research was supported by the Health Research Council of New Zealand.
