New research suggests that naked mole-rats produce eggs throughout their lives, challenging the dogma that female mammals have a finite ovarian reserve. Unlike humans and other mammals, which become less fertile with age, naked mole-rats can reproduce throughout their remarkably long lifespans. A
A naked mole-rat female. Naked mole-rats can reproduce throughout their remarkably long lifespans, unlike humans and other mammals Credit: UPMC
“Naked mole-rats are the weirdest mammals,” said lead author Miguel Brieño-Enríquez, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor at Magee-Womens Research Institute and theSchool of Medicine’s Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences. “They’re the longest-lived rodent, they almost never get cancer, they don’t feel pain like other mammals, they live in underground colonies, and only the queen can have babies.
In contrast, naked mole-rat queens can breed right through old age, suggesting the rodents have special processes to preserve their ovarian reserve and avoid waning fertility. Most remarkably, the study found that oogenesis happens postnatally in naked mole-rats. Egg precursor cells were actively dividing in 3-month-old animals, and these precursors were found in 10-year-old animals, suggesting that oogenesis could continue throughout their lives.
Naked mole-rats live in colonies of several dozen to hundreds of individuals. Like bees or ants, colony members divvy up tasks, including providing defense, digging tunnels, caring for young and collecting food. Only the single dominant female in a colony can breed, and she suppresses reproduction in other females to maintain her queenly status.
“This is important because if we can figure out how they’re able to do this, we might be able to develop new drug targets or techniques to help human health,” said Brieño-Enríquez. “Even though humans are living longer, menopause still happens at the same age. We hope to use what we are learning from the naked mole-rat to protect ovary function later in life and prolong fertility.”
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