Fertility Disorder

As more and more couples around the world are faced with infertility problems, French researchers have identified a new factor in the brain, more precisely, a hormone, failure of which may result in either delayed puberty, a precocious puberty or low fertility. The work, published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was conducted in mice.

In trying to understand the different mechanisms involved in the maturation of sex organs, Vincent Prévot and colleagues from Inserm (Lille 2 University) found that puberty is the activation level of the hypothalamus of specific neurons (GnRH neurons) that cause the secretion of the hormone GnRH (gonadotropin). This triggers the pituitary gland in a chain reaction that stimulates the synthesis of other hormones, which will act directly on the gonads.
Until now, researchers believed that GnRH neurons were stimulated by information from nerve cells in their vicinity, thus acting as a trigger. All is not so simple.


If, indeed, the environment is important, the team of Vincent Prévot just shown that the release of another hormone (prostaglandin E2) by other cells in the brain that is absolutely essential to triggering the whole cascade leading to activation of the reproductive functions.In mice, researchers showed that Lille inhibiting the production of the latter, while the mechanism leading to the maturation of the gonads off. This discovery should eventually pave the way for new therapeutic approaches for treating fertility disorders that affect millions of couples worldwide.