Via EurekAlert!: "Reproductive and somatic aging use different molecular mechanisms that show little overlap between the types of genes required to keep oocytes healthy and the genes that generally extend life span. ... The different genetic pathways help explain why a woman's fertility begins to decline after she is 35 years old, while her other cells do not show significant signs of aging until decades later ... To compare the molecular mechanisms that are switched on or off with the aging of oocytes and somatic cells, Murphy's lab turned to the model organism, Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans), the worm-like nematode that set off the whole field of longevity research with the discovery in the 1990s that gene mutations affecting insulin regulation doubled the worm's life span.Using DNA microarrays to measure the expression levels of genes, Dr. Murphy and her colleagues noted a distinctive DNA signature for aging oocytes. They also found that the oocytes of aging insulin and transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) mutant mice had the same DNA profile that characterized young females. The researchers then compared the oocyte gene expression patterns with microarray transcription data on worms carrying the famous long-life mutations. Murphy and her colleagues found that even though somatic and reproductive aging in C. elegans both involve the insulin regulation pathway, the molecular mechanisms to maintain youthful oocyte function and to combat body aging are very different. ... It seems that maintaining protein and cell quality is the most important component of somatic longevity in worms, while chromosomal/DNA integrity and cell cycle control are the most critical factors for oocyte health."

Link: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-12/asfc-ahb112211.php

Source:
http://www.longevitymeme.org/newsletter/latest_rss_feed.cfm