On the 27th of September the internationally-leading journal, Science, published a seminal study “Chromosome errors in human eggs shape natural fertility over reproductive lifespan”, with ReproUnion Board Member and Professor Eva Hoffmann as senior author and ReproUnion members Professor Claus Yding Andersen, Dr. Stine Gry Kristensen, and Dr. Marie Louise Grøndahl as co-authors (see above pictures).
Chromosome errors (too few or too many) affect an exceptionally high number of human conceptions causing pregnancy loss and congenital disorders such as those associated with Trisomy 21. The authors have followed chromosome segregation in human eggs in girls and women aged 9-43 years and report that the lowered fertility rates in young teenagers and women of advanced maternal age (33 and above) are caused by a high incidence of chromosome errors in eggs that result in genetic imbalance in the embryo.
“The collaboration with international clinics has been vital in the collection of 3000 human eggs used for the research that the study now presents. We obtained small antral follicles directly from ovarian tissue of unstimulated girls and women prior to chemotherapy for blood disorders and a range of cancers”, says Professor Eva Hoffmann, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen.
The ReproUnion initiated patient mobility agreement in the Øresund region supports Rigshospitalet and Skåne University hospital in working together to surgically remove and store ovaries from females suffering from cancer, to help them have children later in life. The agreement has also enabled the collaboration on egg collection for the research presented in the study published in Science.
Please follow this link to the abstract in Science.
