Age-associated alterations in the micromechanical properties of chromosomes in the mammalian egg.
J Assist Reprod Genet. 2015 Mar 11;
Authors: Hornick JE, Duncan FE, Sun M, Kawamura R, Marko JF, Woodruff TK
Abstract
PURPOSE: The incidence of aneuploidy in eggs from women of advanced reproductive age can exceed 60 %, making the mammalian egg a unique model system to study the mechanisms of chromosome segregation errors.
METHODS: Here we applied a novel biophysical chromosome stretching approach to quantify mechanical stiffness of meiotic chromosomes in the mammalian egg and then documented how these properties changed in a mouse model of physiologic reproductive aging.
RESULTS: We found significant differences in chromosome micromechanics, and thus in higher order chromosome structure, coincident with advanced reproductive age, a time that is also unequivocally associated with an increase in egg aneuploidy.
CONCLUSIONS: These findings have important implications for both reproductive and cancer biology where aneuploidy plays a central role in aging related disease states.
PMID: 25758987 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]