Women's Fertility Linked to Natural Antioxidant

A women's fertility may be linked to the natural antioxidant selenium. Scientists have found that this detox element plays a critical role in the early stages of a woman's fertility.

"Selenium is an essential trace element found in protein-rich foods like red meat, seafood and nuts," said Melanie Ceko, one of the researchers, in a news release. "It is important for many biological functions, such as immune response, thyroid hormone production, and acts as an antioxidant, helping to detoxify damaging chemicals in the body. We've known for some time that selenium is important to men's fertility, but until now no one has researched how this element could be involved in healthy reproduction in women."

First, the scientists pinpointed exactly where selenium was located in the ovary. Then, they turned their attention to the selenoprotein, called GPX1.

"Our findings are important, because they show that selenium and selenoproteins are at elevated levels in large, healthy ovarian follicles," said Ceko. "We suspect they play a critical role as an antioxidant during the late stages of follicle development, helping to lead to a healthy environment for the egg. We found that gene expression of GPX1 was significantly higher-in some cases double-in egg cells that yielded a pregnancy."

The findings reveal that this antioxidant is especially important for fertility. Since infertility can be a significant problem, further research may be necessary to better understand how selenium levels could be optimized to improve women's chances of conceiving.

The findings are published in the journal Metallomics.