Miguel Brieño-Enríquez, MD, PhD, assistant professor of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive sciences, School of Medicine, and investigator, Magee-Womens Research Institute, will present a Senior Vice Chancellor’s Research Seminar,  “Forever Young: Lessons from the Naked Mole-Rat Ovary.”

Registration for the lecture is required to receive event instructions.

Topic Overview:

During the last 16 years, several researchers have proposed the presence of ovarian stem cells, a so-called postnatal neo-oogenesis. This concept has been fiercely debated and is highly controversial. It is clear that if these cells are present in the ovary, they do not rescue it from oocyte depletion. Thus, female fertility and reproductive lifespan in mammals critically depend on the size and quality of the ovarian reserve that is generated, mostly, in utero. However, to each rule there is an exception. The naked mole-rat (NMR, Heterocephalus glaber) is well known for being the longest-living rodent, with a maximum lifespan of >37 years. Female NMRs are also exceptional because they demonstrate no decline in fertility or fecundity for the vast majority, if not the entirety, of their decades-long lifespan, whereas comparably sized mice have reduced fertility by 9 months of age. The mechanism(s) allowing NMRs to avoid reproductive senescence are still unknown. Brieño-Enríquez and colleagues reported that, in contrast to mice, humans, and other mammals, the entire process of oogenesis occurs postnatally in the NMR. Evidence of postnatal oogenesis in naked mole-rats includes a significant increase in germ cell numbers, identification of germ cells positive for pluripotency, primordial germ cells, and proliferation markers. This results in more than 1.5 million germ cells in naked mole-rat ovaries by postnatal day 8, approximately five times more than in humans at birth. Using in vivo and in vitro approaches, Brieño-Enríquez and colleagues showed the ability of these postnatal germ cells to mitotically divide. So, in NMR ovaries, the lack of decline in fertility or fecundity is supported by germ-cell proliferation in the postnatal ovary along the entire lifespan, maintaining the ovarian reserve and avoiding reproductive aging.