Human eggs do not accumulate the largest number of mutations with age, as we thought

Human eggs seem to be protected from a certain type of age associated with age. In a small study, the researchers have found no signs that the mutations accumulate in the DNA of the mitochondria of human egg cells as women get old, which may give us evidence of how to stay after decades.

“When we think about the mutations associated with age, we think that the elderly who have more mutations than young people.” Kateryna Makova At Pennsylvania State University. “But expectation is not necessarily the truth.”

Mitochondria, which provides most of the energy to most of our bodies, is transferred only from mothers to their children. Although mitochondria’s DNA mutations are usually harmless, they can sometimes lead to complications, which especially affect muscle cells and nerves given their high energy needs. “The egg [egg] “He says,” he says Ruth Leman At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which was not involved in the study.

Studies showed this The older mothers transport more chromosomes mutationsWhich leads to the wide assumption that this also occurs between mutations to the DNA of mitochondria. To study this, Makova and her colleagues used the DNA climbing method to determine any new mutations in 80 eggs collected from 22 women, aged between 20 to 42.

They found that the mitochondria mutations in women’s eggs did not actually rise as they had age. The same was not true for mitochondria in saliva and blood cells. “I think we have developed a mechanism to reduce the burden of the mutation in some way, because we can multiply at a later time in life,” says Mcova.

The researchers found this in the past The mitochondria DNA mutations have increased Until the animals were about 9 years, their genitals, then they remained fixed. “It will be interesting to also look at younger women,” the team member says. Barbara ArbathperAlso at Pennsylvania State University.

Topics: