DUTCH researchers have identified a hormone that may influence how quickly
mammals use up their lifetime’s supply of eggs. The hormone might one day be
used to delay menopause to prevent conditions such as osteoporosis, or to extend
a woman’s fertile life.
Axel Themmen and his colleagues at Erasmus University in Rotterdam were
studying mice when they found that the substance, called anti-Müllerian
hormone (AMH), puts the brakes on the early stages of follicle development.
At one week old, baby mice have thousands of primordial follicles that are
capable of developing into eggs. Over a mouse’s lifetime, most of…
