Elamipretide (SS-31) improved egg quality and litter size in ageing mice
What was studied
Egg (oocyte) quality falls with age and is the main reason fertility declines. Researchers gave elamipretide (SS-31), a peptide that targets mitochondria, the cell’s energy producers, to aged female mice, and tested it on aged human eggs and on pig eggs under oxidative stress in the lab.
What was found
Aged mice given elamipretide had larger litters and better-quality eggs, with improved maturation, mitochondrial metabolism and cell structure. In the lab, aged human eggs matured, fertilised and divided more often with elamipretide. The authors link the effect to a vitamin B6–VEGF signalling pathway.
What it doesn’t tell us
Reproductive ageing in mice differs from that in people, and results in human eggs in a dish are a long way from a pregnancy. Elamipretide has been studied in people for rare mitochondrial diseases, but not for fertility.