8th INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS on APPLIED BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, Priştine, Kosovo, 13 - 16 September 2023, pp.28
There has been a significant increase in the number of older pregnancies owing to advances in technology, changes in social relationships, and differences in living conditions. With advancing age, it becomes more difficult for women to conceive because of decreased ovarian function, reduced follicle number, and endocrine disorders. Since the recent past, studies have been conducted on the use of mesenchymal stem cells in the treatment of ovarian aging along with their damage repair, immune regulatory, antiapoptotic effects, proliferation, and differentiation abilities.
Mitochondria are important in the regulation of stem cell activity, and it is thought that they may underlie age-related impairment in stem cell function and self-renewal in multiple tissues.
In this study, a three-dimensional (3D) treatment model was developed by encapsulating aged ovarian tissue, rat bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (rBM-MSCs), and mitochondrial extracts of these cells with alginate. In addition to the possible curative effects of 3D gel capsules applied around the ovary on ovarian aging, the possible curative effects of 3D alginate capsules loaded with mitochondria applied around the ovary were investigated. Only "alginate gel" as control group, "alginate gel containing rBM-MSCs" and "alginate gel containing rBM-MSCs mitochondrial extract" in treatment groups were applied around the ovarian tissue of aged animals.To evaluate the efficacy of the treatments, E2, FSH, and AMH protein levels in serum were analyzed by ELISA, FshR, EsR, AmhR, and Casp3 genes in ovarian tissues were analyzed by qRT-PCR, and cCasp3 and pCNA antibodies in ovarian tissue sections were analyzed by immunohistochemistry.
In conclusion, significant differences were found in the decrease in apoptosis markers and improvement in ovarian function-related genes in the groups treated with mitochondria-containing alginate capsules compared to the aged control groups.
Keywords: Mesenchymal Stem Cell, mitochondria, aging
Acknomledgment: This study was supported by the Kocaeli University Scientific Research Projects Unit within the scope of the R&D Center Research Projects, numbered 2023/3227.