A naturally occurring hormone that plays an important role in fetal development may be the basis for a new type of reversible contraceptive that can protect ovaries from the damage caused by chemotherapy drugs. In their report receiving online publication in PNAS, a team from the Pediatric Surgical Research Laboratories in the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Department of Surgery describes using Mullerian Inhibiting Substance (MIS) to halt, in a mouse model, the early development of the ovarian follicles in which oocytes mature, an accomplishment that protects these primordial follicles from chemotherapy-induced damage.
A naturally occurring hormone that plays an important role in fetal development may be the basis for a new type of reversible contraceptive that can protect ovaries from the damage caused by chemotherapy drugs. In their report receiving online publication in PNAS, a team from the Pediatric Surgical Research Laboratories in the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Department of Surgery describes using Mullerian Inhibiting Substance (MIS) to halt, in a mouse model, the early development of the ovarian follicles in which oocytes mature, an accomplishment that protects these primordial follicles from chemotherapy-induced damage.
“MIS has long been suspected as an inhibitor of the initial stages of follicular development, but the complete blockade of the process was unexpected and opened up a number of new applications for the hormone,” says corresponding author David Pepin, PhD. “Because most of what we know about female reproduction is focused on the late stages of follicle maturation, our current therapies – including contraceptive drugs – are all targeted at those processes. The ability to target earlier stages and potentially maintain the larger pool of quiescent oocytes called the ovarian reserve not only could maintain fertility during chemotherapy but also could be applied to modern fertility treatments.”
During embryonic development, MIS is secreted by the testes of male embryos to prevent the maturation of structures that would give rise to female reproductive organs. Patricia Donahoe, MD, director of the Pediatric Surgical Research Laboratories and a co-author of the PNAS paper, has been investigating the potential use of MIS to treat ovarian cancer and other reproductive tumors for several years. As part of that continuing work, Pepin made the surprising observation that overexpression of MIS in female animals completely blocked the maturation of follicles, keeping them at the inactive, primordial stage and rendering the animals infertile.
Read more at Massachusetts General Hospital
Photo credit: Bill Branson, National Cancer Institute via Wikimedia Commons
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