title: Age-associated alterations in the micromechanical properties of chromosomes in the mammalian egg.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, 303 E. Superior Street, Lurie 10-121, Chicago, IL, 60611, USA, j-hornick@northwestern.edu.
authors.forename: Jessica E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Hornick
authors.forename: Francesca E
authors.initials: FE
authors.lastname: Duncan
authors.forename: Mingxuan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Ryo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kawamura
authors.forename: John F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Marko
authors.forename: Teresa K
authors.initials: TK
authors.lastname: Woodruff
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D000782:Aneuploidy; D000818:Animals; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D020090:Chromosome Segregation; D002875:Chromosomes / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D059471:In Vitro Oocyte Maturation Techniques; D008540:Meiosis / Q000502:physiology*; D051379:Mice; D010063:Ovum / Q000502:physiology*