New Eggs for Old?

Toronto, Canada—The reproductive world is abuzz about research being conducted in Toronto that shows eggs from older women can perhaps be rejuvenated.

Studies presented at the 2011 Canadian Fertility and Andrology Society annual meeting indicate that administering coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) to 1- year-old mice—the equivalent of wo - men in their 40s—for 3 or 4 months significantly increases the number of ovulated oocytes and the number of successful pregnancies.

The same team, from the University of Toronto and the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute of Mount Sinai Hospital, is now conducting a randomized, placebo-controlled study of CoQ10 in women.

The premise of the experiments is that because CoQ10 boosts energy production in the mitochondria, extra doses of this coenzyme may give oocytes the boost they need to go through meiosis normally and hence become highquality eggs. CoQ10 is produced by every cell in the body, but production starts to drop drastically at about age 30; hence, exogenous sources can begin to play an important role in older women.

“We expect a good result from the human studies,” Yaakov Bentov, MD, one of the investigators involved in the clinical trial along with lead investigator Robert Casper, MD, told Infertility & Reproductive News. “This is because the ovary is one of the best sites of absorption of CoQ10, and because there have been studies published indicating that other types of function can be restored by administering CoQ10, such as correction of muscle weakness.”

Jason Hitkari, MD, attended the presentation of the data at the meeting. Dr Hitkari is Codirector of Genesis Fertility Centre and Clinical Associate Professor, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, and is not involved in these studies. “We used to think that egg ‘quality’ was something that is fixed, but with CoQ10, there is a shift in the paradigm about how we think about eggs, in that there might now be a way to change egg quality, and that is exciting,” said Dr Hitkari.

The team conducted 4 sequential animal experiments. Each involved 80 1-year-old mice which had been bred previously and hence were known to be fertile. Half of the mice acted as controls and the other half were given twiceweekly CoQ10 injections for 3 or 4 months before oocyte analysis or mating.

“We found the treated mice had nearly double the number of ovulated oocytes of the controls,” said Andrea Jurisicova, PhD, lead investigator and Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Toronto.

As a result, the treated mice also had an average of 11 pups per litter compared with 6 per litter for the agematched controls. Furthermore, 100% of the treated mice became pregnant compared with 70% of the controls.

The team is now conducting a human study. More than 30 women of an expected 54 have been recruited. The women in the study arm will receive oral CoQ10 600 mg daily for 2 months, after which they will begin in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments.

“We still do not know what the ideal treatment period is with CoQ10. It may be as long as 6 months, since this is how long it takes for follicles to mature in humans. But it would be unethical to ask women to delay their IVF this long,” noted Dr Bentov.