Relationship between the position of the spindle in aged oocytes and infertility

2020 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 18K19347
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Medium-sized Section 44:Biology at cellular to organismal levels, and related fields
• Research Institution: Waseda University
• Principal Investigator: Sato Masamitsu 早稲田大学, 理工学術院, 教授 (50447356)
• Project Period (FY): 2018-06-29 – 2021-03-31
• Keywords: 卵母細胞 / 不妊 / 微小管 / 減数分裂 / 染色体

Outline of Final Research Achievements

ART (assisted reproductive technology) is recently becoming very important to reduce risks of chromosome abnormalities and improve the infertility problems. It is therefore essential to understand the mechanisms of infertility and chromosome trisomy from the viewpoint of basic science and to develop such knowledge into technologies for improvement of infertility. Here we tried to understand reasons for infertility from the viewpoint cell biology. Particularly we focused on the spindle in oocytes, which is often displaced in aged oocytes. Our research highlighted that such displacement of the spindle in unfertilized oocytes could serve as a guide to choose promising oocytes that have no sign of aging in terms of spindle positioning.

Free Research Field

細胞生物学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

この紡錘体の位置の異常は、今後の生殖補助医療において、卵母細胞の劣化を示すひとつの指標となりうる。すなわち、不妊治療の現場において卵母細胞を採卵した際に、その中から劣化の兆候が見られず、出生の見込みがある卵母細胞を選択する際に、紡錘体の位置情報を劣化の指標として選別することで、妊娠の可能性を向上させることができるのではないかと想像される。このように、本研究の成果は、今後の臨床への応用の可能性が期待される。