Hormone offers new hope for infertility treatment

17 March 2009

A hormone could offer hope as a new treatment for infertility, according to research part funded by the Wellcome Trust.

Researchers from Imperial College London found that the hormone kisspeptin significantly raised the levels of key sex hormones in infertile women. This could now form the basis of a new infertility treatment for women with low levels of sex hormones.

Kisspeptin is an important hormone regulating reproductive function. Previous studies have shown that a lack of kisspeptin causes animals and humans to miss puberty and remain sexually immature, while overactivation of the kisspeptin receptor GPR54 causes early onset of puberty.

The new study looked at ten women with hypothalamic amenorrhoea, a condition where a hormone imbalance has caused their periods to stop. It is a common cause of infertility in women who should be able to reproduce. Five of the women received injections of kisspeptin while the others received a control solution of salt water.

Blood samples revealed that those who received kisspeptin had a 48-fold increase in luteinising hormone and a 16-fold increase in follicle stimulating hormone, two key sex hormones involved in ovulation and fertility.

"We’ve shown previously that kisspeptin stimulates reproductive hormone release in women with normal reproductive function. But this is the first time in a model of infertility in humans that it's been shown to stimulate reproductive hormone release," said Dr Waljit Dhillo, who led the research.

"This is a very exciting result and suggests that kisspeptin treatment could restore reproductive function in women with low sex hormone levels. Our future research will focus on determining the best protocol for repeated administration with the hope of developing a new therapy for infertility."

Dr Dhillo predicted that future treatments might involve administering a drug that mimicks kisspeptin by interacting with the GPR54 receptor, which would not require injections.

Image credit: Anthea Sieveking, Wellcome Images

Reference

Jayasena CN et al. Kisspeptin potently increases reproductive hormone release in women with hypothalamic amenorrhoea - a potential novel therapy for infertility. Society for Endocrinology BES, 16-19 March 2009, Harrogate, UK.