PhD student Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
Abstract Authors: Nikoleta Nikoua,b, Maria López Panadésa,b, and Ignasi Roiga,b.
aUnitat de Citologia i Histologia, Departament de Biologia Cel·lular, Fisiologia i Immunologia, Facultat de Biociències, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain
bGrup d’Inestabilitat i Integritat del Genoma, Institut de Biotecnologia i Biomedicina, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain
In mammals, oocyte development and maturation are critical processes for female fertility. Women are born with a defined number of follicles, the ovarian reserve, which decreases during their reproductive lifespan, and, finally, when it is depleted, menopause begins. Previously reported data from our lab revealed that the age-associated decrease in primordial follicles is linked to the activation of the DDR. Furthermore, these studies highlighted the importance of oxidative stress in regulating natural menopause in women. Considering all of the above, we attempted to evaluate the effect of an antioxidant treatment that could reverse the effects of ROS in the ovarian reserve preservation. To address this hypothesis, we administered, through the drinking water, the mitochondria-targeted antioxidant, SkQ1, to young C57BL/6 female mice for 14 weeks. To evaluate SKQ1 efficacy, we administered ethanol, an inductor of ROS linked to a diminished ovarian reserve in humans and co-administered SkQ1 and ethanol. Our preliminary findings reveal a significant reduction in primordial follicles in mice exposed to ethanol, suggesting that ethanol consumption diminishes the ovarian reserve. In addition, the SkQ1 treatment could revert these effects on the ovarian reserve and even increase the number of primordial follicles to control levels. To study the effects of the SkQ1 treatment in natural aging, we administered SkQ1 dissolved in DMSO into the drinking water of young C57BL/6 female mice for 14 weeks. Untreated mice lost around 45% of their primordial follicles, contrary to the SkQ1-treated animals, in which the loss was just 22%. So, SkQ1 consumption rescued approximately 40% of the primordial follicles loss during natural aging. Based on these findings, we propose that the daily consumption of ethanol, even in small doses, could significantly affect the fertility status of mammalian females. However, an SkQ1 treatment could counterbalance the ethanol effects and, also, revert the natural aging effects and highly preserve the mammalian ovarian reserve.
Financial Support This work received support from the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación grants (BFU2016-80370-P and PID 2019-107082RB-I00), as well as a Fundación Dexeus Mujer 2019 Fellowship. NN was also awarded a FPI fellowship from the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (PRE-C-2020-0084).
