Premature ovarian failure (POF) has become one of the main causes of infertility in women of reproductive age and the incidence of POF is increasing year by year, having a substantial impact on the physical and mental health of patients and increasing the economic burden on families and society as a whole. POF is characterized by follicle loss, ovarian dysfunction, decreased estrogen production, and finally resulting in infertility. This reproduction disorder affects 1% of women under the age of 40 and 0.1% of women under the age of 30. However, the etiology and pathogenesis of POF are complex and not very clear at present. Potential causes of POF are genetic, autoimmune disorders, and iatrogenic factors, such as ovarian surgery, radiotherapy, or chemotherapy [1]. In the past decade, stem cell-based therapy, particularly mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), has emerged as one of the promising alternative treatments for POF. Due to their properties including immunoregulation, anti-inflammation, angiogenesis, anti-apoptosis, and trophicity, MSCs have been used extensively in reproductive medicine [2]. MSCs produce a large variety of bioactive factors that stimulate the survival, proliferation, and differentiation of the cells in the damaged tissue and facilitate its repair [3]. MSCs can be isolated from various adult or embryonic tissues, including bone-marrow, adipose, placenta, and others [4].
In our study, we investigated changes in the expression of genes important for folliculogenesis in a chemotherapy-induced POF mouse model. We observed the decreased expression of Amh, Amhr, Fshr, Gja1, Mvh, and Zp1 genes due to chemotherapy. The decreased gene expression correlated with lower levels of Anti-Müllerian Hormone (AMH) in serum which indicated that chemotherapy led to ovarian dysfunction and the successful establishment of the POF model. During the next stage, MSCs were administered to the treated mice and the ovarian function recovery was evaluated at the gene expression level. The increased level of AMH in serum and changes in expression levels of the above-mentioned genes were observed when compared with expression levels after chemotherapy, indicating the healing of ovarian tissue. Additional experiments are required to confirm these findings and investigate the changes in the levels of folliculogenesis-associated protein expression.