J Neurosci: Why does stress cause infertility in humans? RFRP neurons in the brain may be the key!

December 7, 2020 // -- In a recent study published in the international journal The Journal of Neuroscience, scientists from the University of Otago and others found a missing link between stress and infertility, and by conducting research in the lab, they confirmed that a group of nerve cells called RFRP neurons at the bottom of the brain may activate under stress conditions in the body and then inhibit the function of the reproductive system.
Photo Source: Public Domain researcher Professor Greg Anderson says that in recent years, as scientists have taken a revolutionary step in neuroscience research, researchers now have the ability to control the activity of selected neuron cells by silently or activating their expression and monitoring the consequences.
paper, researchers using advanced genetically modified techniques found that when the activity of RFRP neurons increases, the body's reproductive hormones are inhibited in a manner similar to that of stress conditions or exposure to the stress hormone cortisol.
To the researchers' surprise, when they used cortisol to suppress reproductive hormone function while silenting RFRP neurons, the reproductive system continued to function as if cortisol did not exist, proving that RFRP neurons may be a key part of the mystery of stress-induced reproductive inhibition.
And this response is particularly pronounced in the female population, where researcher Anderson began studying the role of RFRP neurons in controlling mammalian fertility about a year ago, and he said that when it was discovered that these cells became very active under stress in the body, we began to analyze whether these neurons would inhibit fertility in host bodies under chronic stress, a problem that scientists have not articulated over the past few decades.
researchers point out that while we all know that stress steroids such as cortisol are an important part of the mechanisms involved in this process, and that brain cells that control the body's reproductive system are unable to respond to cortisol, the circuit seems to be missing somewhere.
Now, through research, researchers have found that RFRP neurons are indeed a missing link between body pressure and infertility, activated under stress conditions at the host, perhaps by sensing an increase in cortisol levels, which in turn inhibit the body's reproductive system function.
drug used to block the activity of RFRP neurons may hopefully help improve the body's reproductive capacity; researchers want to study and analyze whether the drug can overcome stress-induced infertility.
For women who treat infertility, a drug that blocks the activity of RFRP neurons may be expected to be used as a new treatment, and according to current researchers' understanding of neurons, the drug does not have any side effects and is currently available, but it is not approved for use in humans, and later researchers may need to improve it for use in human clinical trials.
original source: Asha Mamgain, India L. Sawyer, David A.M Timajo, et al. RFamide-related peptide neurons modulate reproductive function and stress responses, The Journal of Neuroscience (2020). DOI:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1062-20.2020。