A mechanical origin for implantation defects in embryos from aged females
Cavanaugh, K. E.; Franco-Onate, M.; Laird, D. J.; Oakes, P. W.; Alert, R.; Weiner, O. D.
Show abstract
Women over 35 experience a marked reduction in fertility. The origin of these fertility defects appears to reside in the implantation capacity of the embryo itself, but the mechanistic basis of this impairment is not well-understood. Here, we identify a core mechanical defect in embryos from aged mothers that impairs the process of implantation. Using mouse models, we find that reproductive aging yields increased contractility in the extra-embryonic trophectoderm, the outer epithelial tissue responsible for mediating uterine attachment and embryo implantation. This hypercontractile state elevates tissue surface tension and viscosity in the blastocyst, culminating in defective spreading during implantation. Enhanced contractility is necessary and sufficient for this age-related defect in implantation, and early embryo mechanics can be used to predict successful implantation for embryos from both young and aged mothers. Our work represents a potential foundation for improving embryo selection in Assisted Reproductive Technologies to resolve age-related defects in female fertility.
Matching journals
The top 6 journals account for 50% of the predicted probability mass.
Similar papers in this journal
- Occurrence of non-apical mitoses at the primitive streak, induced by relaxation of actomyosin and acceleration of the cell cycle, contributes to cell delamination during mouse gastrulation. 96%
- PIEZO1 Drives Trophoblast Fusion and Placental Development 96%
- Deconstructing body axis morphogenesis in zebrafish embryos using robot-assisted tissue micromanipulation 95%
Similar papers in this journal
Similar papers in this journal
- Differential tissue deformability underlies shape divergence of the embryonic brain and spinal cord under fluid pressure 95%
- Single cell transcriptomics reveals chondrocyte differentiation dynamics in vivo and in vitro 94%
- Comparative analysis of rhesus macaque and human placental organoids highlights evolutionary differences in placentation 94%
Similar papers in this journal
- Fgf4 is critical for maintaining Hes7 levels and Notch oscillations in the somite segmentation clock 95%
- A sheath of motile cells supports collective migration of the Zebrafish posterior lateral line primordium under the skin 95%
- An atypical basement membrane forms a midline barrier during left-right asymmetric gut development in the chicken embryo 95%
"Similar papers" are the closest papers from that journal in the model's embedding space. They show what the match is built on, but the ranking comes mostly from a classifier over the whole training set, not from these examples alone.