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Erschienen in:
01.05.2015 | Gamete Biology
Age-associated alterations in the micromechanical properties of chromosomes in the mammalian egg
Erschienen in: Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics | Ausgabe 5/2015
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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.