title: Germline energetics, aging, and female infertility.
abstract: The role of metabolism in ovarian aging is poorly described, despite the fact that ovaries fail earlier than most other organs. Growing interest in ovarian function is being driven by recent evidence that mammalian females routinely generate new oocytes during adult life through the activity of germline stem cells. In this perspective, we overview the female reproductive system as a powerful and clinically relevant model to understand links between aging and metabolism, and we discuss new concepts for how oocytes and their precursor cells might be altered metabolically to sustain or increase ovarian function and fertility in women.
authors.affiliation: Vincent Center for Reproductive Biology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114, USA; Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA. Electronic address: jtilly@partners.org.
authors.forename: Jonathan L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Tilly
authors.affiliation: Glenn Laboratories for the Biological Mechanisms of Aging, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia. Electronic address: david_sinclair@hms.harvard.edu.
authors.forename: David A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Sinclair
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000378:metabolism*; D000818:Animals; D031204:Caloric Restriction; D005260:Female; D005854:Germ Cells; D006801:Humans; D007247:Infertility, Female / Q000378:metabolism*; D008593:Menopause / Q000378:metabolism; D051379:Mice; D008928:Mitochondria / Q000378:metabolism; D009865:Oocytes; D009866:Oogenesis; D010053:Ovary / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*; D051381:Rats; D013234:Stem Cells