Targeting signaling pathways involved in primordial follicle growth or dormancy: potential application in prevention of follicular loss and infertility.

INTRODUCTION

Premature ovarian failure (POF) is one of the important causes of infertility in females. To date, no efficient preventive pharmacological treatment has been offered to prevent POF. Therefore, it is necessary to focus on strategies that provide a normal reproductive lifespan to females at risk of developing POF.

AREAS COVERED

Recently, attention has been drawn to discovering pathways involved in primordial follicle activation, as the inhibition of this process might maintain the stock of primordial follicles and therefore, prevent POF. and animal studies have resulted in the discovery of several of these pathways that can be used to develop new treatments for POF. These studies show crosstalk of these pathways at different levels. One of the important crossing points of many of these pathways involves anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH). Herein, we discuss different aspects of this topic by reviewing related published articles indexed in PubMed and Web of Science as of December 2021.

EXPERT OPINION

Although the findings seem promising, most of the studies were conducted on animals, and the interaction between these factors and the possible outcomes of their administration in the long term are still unknown. Therefore, further investigation is necessary to assess these aspects.