Time-restricted fasting could cause fertility problems

Peer reviewed - Experimental study - fish

2023-04-12

(Press-News.org) Time-restricted fasting diets could cause fertility problems according to new research from the University of East Anglia.

A new study published today shows that time-restricted fasting affects reproduction differently in male and female zebrafish.

Importantly, some of the negative effects on eggs and sperm quality can be seen after the fish returned to their normal levels of food consumption.

The research team say that while the study was conducted in fish, their findings highlight the importance of considering not just the effect of fasting on weight and health, but also on fertility.

Prof Alexei Maklakov, from UEA’s School of Biological Sciences, said: “Time-restricted fasting is an eating pattern where people limit their food consumption to certain hours of the day. It’s a popular health and fitness trend and people are doing it to lose weight and improve their health.

“But the way organisms respond to food shortages can affect the quality of eggs and sperm, and such effects could potentially continue after the end of the fasting period.

“We wanted to find out more about how these sorts of diets can affect fertility in a popular model organism.”

The research team studied zebrafish (Danio rerio) to find out what happens when individuals are exposed to food during and after a period of fasting. They measured how males and females allocate resources to body maintenance versus production and maintenance of sperm and eggs, and the quality of the resulting offspring.

Dr Edward Ivimey-Cook, from UEA’s School of Biological Sciences, said: “What we found is that time-restricted fasting affects reproduction differently in males and females. Once the fish returned to their normal feeding schedule, females increased the number of offspring they produced at the cost of egg quality resulting in reduced quality of offspring. The quality of male sperm also decreased.

“These findings underscore the importance of considering not just the effect of fasting on body maintenance but also on the production of eggs and sperm.

“Importantly, some of the negative effects on eggs and sperm quality can be seen after the animals returned to their normal levels of food consumption following time-restricted fasting.

“More research is needed to understand how long it takes for sperm and egg quality to return back to normal after the period of fasting.”

This study was led by the University of East Anglia in collaboration with researchers at the Centre for Environmental, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas).

It was carried out with funding from the European Research Council (ERC), the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC).

‘Fasting increases investment in soma upon refeeding at the cost of gamete quality in zebrafish’ is published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

END

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Scientists uncover the amazing way sandgrouse hold water in their feathers

2023-04-12

Many birds’ feathers are remarkably efficient at shedding water — so much so that “like water off a duck’s back” is a common expression. Much more unusual are the belly feathers of the sandgrouse, especially Namaqua sandgrouse, which absorb and retain water so efficiently the male birds can fly more than 20 kilometers from a distant watering hole back to the nest and still retain enough water in their feathers for the chicks to drink and sustain themselves in the searing deserts ...

Alternative route used by specialized immune cells to colonize the embryonic brain suggests new approach to fighting fetal brain dysfunction

2023-04-12

A team from the Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine in Japan has uncovered new information about how microglia, the resident immune cells in the brain, colonize the brain during the embryonic stage of development. Although erythromyeloid progenitors (EMPs) were previously thought to divide into either microglia or macrophages, the group found that macrophages that enter the brain primordium —the brain in its earliest recognizable stage of development— can become microglia at later stages of development. These findings demonstrate the plasticity of these ...

The brain’s cannabinoid system protects against addiction following childhood maltreatment

2023-04-12

High levels of the body’s own cannabinoid substances protect against developing addiction in individuals previously exposed to childhood maltreatment, according to a new study from Linköping University in Sweden. The brains of those who had not developed an addiction following childhood maltreatment seem to process emotion-related social signals better. Childhood maltreatment has long been suspected to increase the risk of developing a drug or alcohol addiction later in life. Researchers at Linköping University have previously shown that this risk is three times higher if you have been exposed to childhood maltreatment ...

Pregnant women show robust and variable immunity during COVID-19

2023-04-12

New research from the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity (Doherty Institute) has found that pregnant women display a strong immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection, comparable to that of non-pregnant women. Published in JCI Insight, the study looked at the immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 in unvaccinated pregnant and non-pregnant women and found similar levels of antibodies and T and B cell responses, responsible for long-term protection. Lead author of the paper, University of ...

Antimicrobial stewardship programs essential for preventing C. difficile in hospitals

2023-04-12

ARLINGTON, Va. (April 12, 2023) — Five medical organizations say it is essential that hospitals establish antimicrobial stewardship programs to prevent Clostridioides difficile (C. difficile) infections. These infections, linked to antibiotic use, cause difficult-to-treat diarrhea, longer hospital stays, and higher costs. C. difficile infections are fatal for more than 12,000 people in the United States each year. Strategies to Prevent Clostridioides difficile Infections in Acute Care Hospitals: 2022 Update, gives evidence-based, ...

Mitochondria power-supply failure may cause age-related cognitive impairment

2023-04-12

LA JOLLA—(April 12, 2023) Brains are like puzzles, requiring many nested and codependent pieces to function well. The brain is divided into areas, each containing many millions of neurons connected across thousands of synapses. These synapses, which enable communication between neurons, depend on even smaller structures: message-sending boutons (swollen bulbs at the branch-like tips of neurons), message-receiving dendrites (complementary branch-like structures for receiving bouton messages), and power-generating mitochondria. To create a cohesive brain, all these pieces must be accounted for. However, in the aging brain, these ...

Education and peer support cut binge-drinking by National Guard members in half, study shows

2023-04-12

A new study shows promise for reducing risky drinking among Army National Guard members over the long term, potentially improving their health and readiness to serve. The number of days each month that Guard members said they had been binge-drinking dropped by up to half, according to the new findings by a University of Michigan team published in the journal Addiction. The drop happened over the course of a year among Guard members who did multiple brief online education sessions designed for members of the military, and among those who did an initial online education session followed by supportive ...

World’s biggest cumulative logjam, newly mapped in the Arctic, stores 3.4 million tons of carbon

2023-04-11

WASHINGTON — Throughout the Arctic, fallen trees make their way from forests to the ocean by way of rivers. Those logs can stack up as the river twists and turns, resulting in long-term carbon storage. A new study has mapped the largest known woody deposit, covering 51 square kilometers (20 square miles) of the Mackenzie River Delta in Nunavut, Canada, and calculated that the logs store about 3.4 million tons (about 3.1 million metric tons) of carbon. “To put that in perspective, that’s about two and a half million ...

Life cycle assessment can help with the transition to the circular economy

2023-04-11

According to Bening Mayanti's doctoral dissertation at the University of Vaasa, the use of life cycle assessment combined with economic models can help companies to take steps toward the circular economy. – We often hear claims about some solutions being circular, sustainable, or green. Instead of blindly accepting those claims, we should ask justifications, ‘How so?’ says Mayanti, who publicly defended her dissertation on Wednesday, 5 April. Before deciding on circular economy solutions and building supply chains, it is worth doing a careful analysis. ...

From waste to wonder: unlocking nature’s biochemical recycling secrets

2023-04-11

A new perspective published in the journal Nature Chemical Biology uncovers a previously unknown biochemical recycling process in animals. The authors review a flurry of recent papers demonstrating that animals extensively recycle biochemical waste to produce novel chemicals that play key roles in biology, from regulating behavior to development and aging. These studies show that the genes previously thought to code for carboxylesterases, enzymes that hydrolyze esters, actually play a pivotal role in assembling a wide range of new metabolites from building blocks generally considered “cellular waste.” Surprisingly, the so-called carboxylesterases were found to contribute ...

Time-restricted fasting could cause fertility problems

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: