fertility

If we want to increase human fertility, mice have something to tell us: fecal transplants

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We knew that the bacteria that live in our intestine They are really positive and offer us extra protection against numerous threats from outside or even against Alzheimer’s. Now they have just added a new star function: they can help us improve our reproductive health. And all this with a simple fecal microbiota transplant. New evidence. This same month of March the magazine Nature has published an article that breaks with several scientific paradigms and demonstrates a bidirectional communication between the microbiome and women’s ovaries. The study here wanted to demonstrate that fecal microbiota transplant can completely remodel the behavior of the ovaries, reducing inflammation and even increasing reproductive success. But the most amazing thing about the experiment is not the ‘what’, but the ‘how’, since it has quite surprised the experimenters that the result has gone against what they expected. How is it possible? To understand this finding, we must first know the concept of ‘strobolome‘ which will give a lot to talk about in the coming years. In a simple way, it is a set of intestinal bacteria that are capable of metabolizing and modulating the level of estrogen, which is one of the main female sex hormones and closely related to reproduction. Until now, we knew that the microbiota played a role in almost every part of our body, ranging from digestion to our own mental health. But they wanted to go further, and in the past it was noted that they had already begun to explore how to transfer faeces from young mice to old ones, which would improve their ovarian reserve. But the best thing is that doing the opposite could accelerate the aging of the ovaries. The new study. Knowing this, this research team designed an experiment in which healthy adult mice were taken and given antibiotics to cleanse their intestinal flora. From here, they underwent a fecal microbiota transplant from mice in the ‘estropausal’ phase, which is like human menopause. What the researchers here were expecting is that if they were introduced to the microbiota of aged rats in reproductive decline, their ovaries would suffer damage. But the truth is that they were wrong. Results. The results here showed that adult females who received the “estropausal” microbiota not only did not worsen, but rather improved ovarian function and an increase in their fertility. Because? By thoroughly analyzing the organism of these ringworms, using sequencing of the genetic material of the ovaries, it was seen that the transplant had caused a massive remodeling of the ovarian transcriptome. That is, the way in which the genes in the ovaries were expressed had completely changed towards a “younger” profile. In addition, the analyzes revealed a drastic drop in the expression of genes linked to inflammation. The explanation that scientists are considering points directly to the strobolome, since it is possible that the microbiota of the stropausal mice, in its attempt to survive the natural drop in hormones of its original host, has developed brutal compensatory mechanisms. By transplanting these “surviving, super-optimized bacteria” into a young environment, they boosted the health of the recipient ovary. The future. Although in this case this effect has been seen in mouse animal modelsthe implications of this study may allow us to continue advancing treatments that can improve human reproductive health. The goal here is to be able to isolate what exactly are the specific microbial candidates or metabolites responsible for this improvement and in the future we could be talking about probiotic treatments or microbiome-based therapies to prolong fertility. Images | Kelly Sikkema CDC In Xataka | Drinking coffee in the morning has very positive consequences for someone unexpected in your body: the microbiota

This is how the dangerous “Amazon of fertility” works

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Having a child is the dream of many people around the world, but finding a suitable father it can be a bit complicated. There are many couples or single mothers who decide to go to a fertility clinic or a hospital to find a sperm donor, but now This process has also passed to social networks such as TikTok or Facebook. The Internet has become a veritable ‘Amazon of fertilization’, with advertisements for men who highlight having “very strong sperm.” And it is not the letter of introduction that can be found on Tinder, but a phrase taken from a Facebook group where dozens of men advertise to offer their semen to women and couples who need a donor, although without following official channels. The problem. In the United Kingdom, the legal route to receive a donation from a donor is through the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority (HFEA), which regulates assisted reproduction. In this case is established that donors cannot receive any financial compensation, except for justified expenses. Why it triumphs. A treatment at a fertility clinic can cost 10,000 poundsbeing a figure that many couples or single women cannot assume. That is why they decide to turn to a more economical system, although without regulation, such as social network groups. There are groups on social networks like Sperm Donors UK, Start a Family Here either Get Your Babydust Herewhere thousands of users publish “natural” or “artificial” donation offers. According to The Guardiansome of these groups have reached 10,000 members in one year with different announcements. In the case of Spain, this problem also exists, since although public healthcare covers a number of specific assisted reproduction cycles, the fact of consuming them also forces one to opt for the private route, which has significant costs. The speed. Also involved in this case is the fact of not being able to choose exactly the sperm donor, having to stick to certain physical characteristics that are sometimes met or not. With these dissemination groups, you can get a real photograph of the sperm donors to see if it fits the taste of the mother or the couple. And we get rid of having to wait for a profile with this style to appear, since it has been seen how a notice has been published saying “I need a donation tonight, I am ovulating and my donor has failed me. I am looking for a donor for this weekend.” This urgency creates the perfect breeding ground for the exploitation of this phenomenon. Felicity, a member of these groups cited by The Guardian, points out that the demographics are dangerous: very young recipients between 18 and 25 years old, and considerably older donors between 35 and 50 years old. There are many risks. When adjusting to this insemination method without any type of health regulation, it must be remembered that the donors have not been tested for sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV, nor have they undergone genetic analysis to rule out important diseases such as cystic fibrosis. The case of James MacDougall, an unregulated donor who I knew I was a carrier of fragile (which causes learning and cognitive disabilities) and still donated, is a clear example of the danger. A legal chaos. A priori it seems that it is very easy to have a child using this internet system, and the reality is that in the United Kingdom it is quite simple thanks to very lax legislation, where we already have the case of a man who claims to have 180 children and has begun to claim to have contact with them through the courts. This in Spain is about regulating, specifically thanks to the Law 14/2006 on assisted human reproduction techniques which indicates that the donation is anonymous, meaning that the recipient cannot know the donor, so they will not have responsibilities regarding paternity. But this outside of an authorized center ceases to have value. This means that if a woman uses a Facebook donor and he then claims paternity (proving it with a DNA test), a judge could give it to her, with all her obligations (maintenance) and rights (visitation). The anonymity that Spanish law protects disappears, creating a legal nightmare for the mother. How they spread. How is it possible for these groups to prosper? This is the question we can ask ourselves today, and to answer it we have to understand that technology plays an important role. Meta’s recommendation algorithm, designed to connect similar interests, actively promotes these communities. Although Meta’s policies prohibit the sale of bodily fluids, the reality is that the moderation of private groups is sometimes complex to understand. Although it has already gone from Facebook to influencers. There are men like the German Daniel Bayen They document their “giving tours” around the world on TikTok and Instagram. Bayen, who was also conceived by donation, promotes transparency and maintains contact with the families to whom he has donated his sperm. But if analyzed, this type of person is leaving a trail of dozens of biological half-siblings and the risk of consanguinity in the future may increase, especially if the recipient families live nearby. Images | Christian Velitchkov Thomas Breher In Xataka | We have visited the place where Spain’s demographic hopes are literally placed: the sperm bank of Granada

29 years ago we clone to the Dolly sheep. Thanks to this, today we are one step closer to solving the fertility crisis

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Imagine a future in which the infertility caused by the lack of ovules or sperm is no longer an insurmountable obstacle. A future where two men can have a biological child together, or where A woman who has lost her ability to produce ovules For age or for a cancer treatment may have offspring with its own genetics. This future, which until now belonged to science fiction, is a little closer thanks to a revolutionary advance that has been published in Nature. Biology This advance, which seems like a science fiction, has been made by the team of researchers at Oregon Health & Science University, led by Dr. Shoukhrat Mitalipov. In this case they have managed to develop an experimental technique that forces a skin cell (somatic) to reduce your number of chromosomes in half. It is, in essence, the most crucial and complicated step in the creation of a gamete (an ovule or a sperm). A process they have called mitomeiosis. To be able to understand it, you have to know that all the cells of our body have in total 46 chromosomes in its nucleus. But there is an exception: sperm and gametes that They have 23 chromosomes. A very important number so that when an ovule and sperm merge, they have a total of 46 chromosomes. That is why it is revolutionary that they have managed to get a skin cell to have 23 chromosomes to be an ideal candidate to give offspring. The trick. The natural process to create these haploid cells (with 23 chromosomes) is called meiosis. A very complex type of cell division that has been investigating for a long time. This made it replicate in a laboratory, which is known as in vitro gametogenesis (IVG) was one of the greatest challenges of biology. Something that now reminds us of what we already saw with the Dolly sheep in the cloning process. OHSU’s team addressed the problem in an ingenious way. Using a technique similar to cloning, called nuclear somatic cell transfer (SCNT). A technique that is complex, but can be summarized in three different steps: The first thing is to take a donated human ovule and extract the genetic material. In this way, the ovule maintained all its cytoplasm with the organelles, which ultimately is like the machinery that the cell has to produce energy and carry out many processes such as meiosis. Once done, a skin cell is taken (a diploid cell with 46 chromosomes in a 2N state) and is extracted the nucleus inside. Now it only remains to introduce the core of the skin cell into the ovule that has been emptied. The result. In this case it was amazing, since the ovule cytoplasm could ‘deceive’ the skin’s core, forcing it prematurely into a state similar to the metaphase of the Meiosis. This caused its 46 chromosomes to be organized in a spindle ready to divide, despite having skipped the DNA duplication phase in the cell cycle that is before the division of the genetic material. The problem. However, here they met a wall. In nature, the entrance of the ‘active’ sperm to complete its division, being mediated by a large number of zinc. But in this case, when they tried to fertilize the SCNT ovules with sperm, the vast majority (almost 77%) remained ‘arrested’ without reacting. The natural signal was not enough for this artificial construction. The solution in this case went to develop an artificial ‘starter’ key. After sperm fertilization, they applied an assisted activation protocol an electrical pulse by electroporation to simulate the calcium entry caused by sperm to its entrance, followed by a treatment with a chemical inhibitor called Roscovitin. And it is something that ended up working. Forced activation made the modified ovules leave their arrest and complete the division. The 46 chromosomes of the cell were separated, leaving an average of 23 chromosomes within the fertilized ovum (now a zigoto) and expelling a small polar body from the rest, having achieved the long -awaited ploidy reduction that was the objective of this experiment. Progress. The embryos resulting from this experiment containing chromosomes of the skin and sperm cell, beginning to divide and even some reached the blastocyst phase (an early development of about 5-6 days), with a success rate of 8.8%. This shows that genomes can integrate and work together. It’s just a test. The authors who are still a long way forward, since for now it is a “proof of concept” by not being a perfect replica of natural meiosis. In this case, segregation is random unlike meiosis, where it is ensured that each daughter cell receives a copy of each of the 23 types of original chromosomes. In this project the separation of homologous chromosomes (the paternal and maternal) was completely random. This generates aneuploid embryos that are incompatible with life. In addition, it also lacks ‘cross -rise’ or crossovera vital mechanism in meiosis where paternal and maternal chromosomes exchange fragments creating genetic diversity. This is something that is not present in this process and that takes away a lot of variability. The future. Despite the limitations of this study, work is a fundamental milestone. It aligns with other laboratories such as the Japanese Katsuhiko Hayashi that in 2023 managed to create functional ovules From male mice skin cells, with which healthy offspring were born. In the long term, the implications of these studies give hope to those women who suffer from infertility due to lack of functional gametes and who want to have offspring with their own genetics. The same happens in same -sex couples that also open the door for a couple of men (using a skin cell to create an ovule) or women (creating sperm) can have biologically related son between both members of the couple. Although we cannot also forget that right now there is a fertility crisis that causes that in Spain, for example, there is reduced birth rate. This is also conditioned that it is … Read more

In 2007 Spain forced men to take longer casualties to take care of their children. Act then fertility fell

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Throughout the last two decades Spain has taken several steps to extend the casualties by paternity among men. Gave one key in 2007another followed that extended its reach In 2017 and Four years ago He advanced again in that same direction to match the permits enjoyed by the women and men who have just had a baby. But … how do these casualties influence birth? Are they harmless? Do they accelerate it? Do they slow down? And if so, what is the reason? Now we have Some keys. Question of Paternity and Birth Low. A few years ago the researchers Farré Lídia and Libertad González They asked themselves an interesting question, especially for governments (more and more) that they are fighting against birth crises and seek greater equality in homes: how do the casualties affect paternity to fertility? Do they influence the probability that a couple has more children in the short term? And if so, in what sense? To respond to these issues, they analyzed the birth data published by the INE between 2005 and 2013 and were set at a specific date: March 2007, which was when it was approved The legislative change which allowed men to take paternity permits of 13 days, expandable to 15 in cases of multiple births. Until then only parents were allowed to absent A couple of days. Since then the regulatory framework It has varied quite considerably, first with a change that expanded the casualties In 2017 And then, four years ago, with another for match the permits of mothers and fathers. Even so, what happened 2007 continues to offer a valuable opportunity to assess the impact of the casualties. And what did they discover? Farré and González captured their conclusions in An academic article Posted in 2019 in Journal of Public Economicsa piece that suggests that the two -week paternity decline released in 2007 had several effects on the Spanish society of the following years. Some expected. Others, not so much. Among the latter the most curious is that these permits delayed the subsequent fertility of couples. That is, the parents who took the decline took longer to have other offspring than those who had no permits. A key horizon: six years. “We show that the introduction of two weeks of paid permission paid in Spain in 2007 led to an increase in the spacing of births, which may have led to a lower number of subsequent births between older couples”, summary Farré and González in Your article. “We discovered that the parents who were entitled to the new paternity permission when they had a child in 2007 took longer to have another compared to those who did not have that right. We also show that the couples with permission were less likely to have another child the six years of age following the application of the reform.” And what are the causes? The million dollar question. In Your articlethe researchers slide some keys. One is the effect that the new paternity casualties have in the distribution of domestic tasks (including parenting) and how that is reflected at work level. As Farré and González explain, despite the fact that women’s opportunities have been improving in recent decades, they “continue to spend more time to unpaid and care work than men.” When that cast is balanced thanks to permits, women can devote more time to paid jobs and boost their careers. And how does that influence fertility? For women it is a greater resignation to have more children. “The greatest participation of parents in children’s care could have improved the labor insertion of mothers, as reflected in their highest employment rates after childbirth, which could have increased the opportunity cost of having an additional child,” Clarifies the study. To this is added that the more parents are involved in lower upbringing are the differences between men and women in the eyes of an entrepreneur. THE OTHER GREAT KEY: PATERNITY. During their study the researchers appreciated another factor: after the 2007 reform the men simply seemed less interested in expanding the family with more children, at least in the short term. “The men reported a lower fertility after the reform, which could be due to the fact that the period of decline aware of the total cost of having children,” collect the study. “Spending more time with your children could have modified their preferences in favor of quality (instead of quantity).” Does it affect insertion? “The men who have benefited from the new paternity decline are less will summarize The UB, to which Farré is linked. The report leaves another interesting idea: although the rate of use of paternity decline was high, it does not seem to have affected men at work level. In what the casualties have influenced is in the involvement of men in child care, increasing the time they dedicate to parenting, and the labor perspectives of women. “Mothers presented higher employment rates six months after childbirth and were prone to request a family leave.” Does inequality influence? Although it is based on data several years ago and focuses on the specific case of Spain, the study is interesting because, their authors remember, the effects they observe on fertility could “generalize” other countries in the south and east of Europe in which women carry much of the responsibilities of the home. In the case of Spain, The report recalls that until 2007 men barely resorted to parental permission and imbalance in the distribution of domestic tasks and the raising of children was very accentuated: at least between 2002 and 2003, they dedicated 4.2 hours a day to home work and child care, more than triple than they, who barely invested 1.3 h. “These characteristics could have contributed to the introduction of the paternity license to be more effective, increasing the child care time of the parents and the linking of women to the workforce, perhaps with the side effect of reducing the desired fertility of men in relation to … Read more

We have been seeing that Ozempic affects fertility. Now the United Kingdom has begun to take the “Ozempic Babies” seriously

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Ozempic He began his career as a drug against diabetes but became one of the most popular medications worldwide when we realized that among its “side effects” was weight loss. Since then we have been detecting other possible effects, positive and negative but surely the most surprising of these is on its effects on fertility. Set deals with the phenomenon of the “Ozempic Babies” The United Kingdom warns. The authority responsible for regulating drugs and health products in the United Kingdom, MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency) warned a few days ago of a “new” side effect associated with the consumption of Ozempic, that of an increase in pregnancy probability. While this is the first time that the organism warns about the effect, the first news about this occurred More than a year ago. How it works. Ozempic is the brand with which Danish pharmaceuticals Novo Nordisk markets a diabetes treatment based on semaglutida. This compound also serves as a basis for Wegovyname under which the drug oriented to weight loss is marketed. To understand why the same compound can function as a treatment against diabetes and as a thinning we have to understand how it acts in our body. The semaglutida works as an agonist of the peptide receptors similar to glucagon-1 (LPG-1), that is, it works as an analogue of this key hormone in the digestive process. When we eat our body naturally secretes the GLP-1 hormone to transmit two messages. The first to the pancreas, so that it begins to segregate insulin with which to metabolize the sugars of the food. The second to the brain, so that this knows that we are satiated. Drugs like Zepbound and Mounjaro They act similarlyalthough the tirzepatida on which they are based works as a double analogue of LPG-1 and GIP hormones (gastric inhibitor polypeptide). Ozempic Babies. A little over a year ago, dozens of women in treatment with any of these medications They started informing of a strange phenomenon: They were becoming pregnant despite being considered infertile or despite resorting to contraceptives. This phenomenon was soon baptized as the “Ozempic Babies“,” Ozempic babies. “ How do you do it? Since the phenomenon began to document, many wondered how it was possible. There are two mechanisms (alternative or complementary) that can explain this phenomenon. The first has to do with contraceptives, specifically with oral contraceptives. One of Ozempic’s effects is that of slow down our digestionwhich in turn makes nutrients and other compounds absorb more slowly. In the preparation of an oral treatment, absorption speed is an important variable to take into account. Drugs such as contraceptives are designed for specific speeds, if these change too much, treatment can lose efficacy. He Another mechanism that could explain this phenomenon has to do with its slimming effect. As experts also highlight, there is an inverse relationship between obesity and overweight and fertility. It is possible, that by facilitating weight loss the drug is also contributing to increasing the probabilities of pregnancy. A double problem. The problem is double since it not only implies a greater probability of an unwanted pregnancy; also because this type of treatments They are contraindicated Not only for pregnant women, but also in those who seek to be. According to the recommendations, who wants to find a pregnancy should interrupt these treatments At least two months In advance to allow our body to return to normal and avoid unnecessary risks in a process as complex as gestation. Positive effects and negative effects. The “fever” by Ozempic and the drugs of its class began with a side effect: a medication aimed at treating diabetes made those who consumed it lose weight. The demand for these compounds has allowed us to find other possible Side effectspositive and negative, on which we have a greater or lesser degree of certainty. Possible adverse effects documented by the manufacturer itself can find problems such as aggravation of diabetic eye disease, potential allergic reactions and a variety of gastrointestinal symptoms, from nausea to constipation. However, since it also began to be used We have found indications on other possible effects. Some positives such as helping the fight against addictions or possible effects on renal health either cardiovascular. In the negative face we have also found indications of loss of hair and eye problems. In Xataka | “Ozempic face”, “Ozempic language” and “Ozempic teeth”: the other very visible effect of consuming the medicine to lose weight Image | Chemist4u / Camylla Battani

A fertility ritual 500 years ago

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Few places on the planet are presupposed with such archaeological wealth without discovering as Latin America. Without going very far, an unprecedented fact occurred recently in Peru, when a group of researchers found in a municipal dump no less than A 5,000 -year -old mummy of antiquity. Something has happened in an area of ​​Mexico. What intuited an accumulation of rotrefacta garbage has turned out to be an incalculable value treasure. An unexpected finding. Yes, what at first seemed to be a simple garbage in a remote cave in the mountain area in Guerrero (Mexico) has ended up being one of the most surprising archaeological revelations of recent times. The speleologist Katiya Pavlova, accompanied by the local guide Adrián Beltrán Dimas, explored in September 2023 Tlagoococ cave (Name that in Nahuatl means “Cueva de los Texas”) when, after crossing a narrow passage flooded with just fifteen centimeters between the roof and the surface of the water, they ran into fourteen objects carefully arranged around stalagmites. The scene, preserved in gloom and constant humidity for centuries, seemed to have stopped over time. Fertility ritual. Among the objects found There were four shell bracelets, a huge decorated snail of Strombus genretwo complete stone discs, six discs fragments and a piece of carbonized wood. The arrangement of the bracelets, placed on small stalagmites of rounded way with possible galician connotations (Cover image), led archaeologists of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) to interpret the whole as vestiges of pre -Hispanic fertility rituals. As explained The archaeologist Miguel Pérez Negrete, in many Mesoamerican cultures the caves were considered sacred spaces, linked to the underworld and symbolically associated with the uterus of the earth, which reinforces the ritual hypothesis of the offering. Venus and Quetzalcoatl symbols. Three of the bracelets present engravings with important pre -Columbian symbols. One of them is The Xonecuillia S -shaped figure associated with the planet Venus and the measurement of time. Another shows what, according to researchers, could be the representation of QuetzalcóatlCreator God in several Mesoamerican cultures. Not just that. The indications allowed the objects in the Postclassic period (950–1521 dc), and attribute them tentatively to The Tlacotepehua culturea little documented civilization that inhabited the mountain region. As for the excellent state of conservation of the pieces, it is attributed to the stable climatic conditions within the cave, which has allowed, after more than five centuries of silencethey resurface in this way. 500 years hidden legacy. As we said at the beginning, it is a (other) surprising archaeological finding of hundreds of years ago. The Tlayócoc cave, located about 2,380 meters above sea level, is known among the premises for its water and bat guano, but so far there were no recent records of deep exploration. Hence the finding of Pavlova and Beltrán can represent the first human incursion in that place in approximately five hundred years. After the discovery, both immediately contacted the INAH, who recovered the objects last March and will integrate them into their heritage For study and preservation. No doubt, an exciting finding that contrasts with the initial theory: a handful of fragments in the dark, confused with garbage, has revealed a forgotten fragment of indigenous spirituality, of ancestral cosmology and of material expressions of the sacred. Image | Katiya Pavlova In Xataka | In 2023 some explorers entered a remote cave in Mexico. They found the last archaeological treasure of the country In Xataka | 60 years ago we discovered a hidden gold in the jungle of Peru. Now we know that it was really much more

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