Jiang, Y., Shi, H., Liu, Y., Zhao, S., & Zhao, H. (2021). Applications of Melatonin in Female Reproduction in the Context of Oxidative Stress. Oxidative medicine and cellular longevity, 2021, 6668365. https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/6668365
Jiang Y, Shi H, Liu Y, Zhao S, Zhao H. Applications of Melatonin in Female Reproduction in the Context of Oxidative Stress. Oxidative medicine and cellular longevity. 2021;2021:6668365. doi:10.1155/2021/6668365
Jiang, Yonghui, et al. "Applications of Melatonin in Female Reproduction in the Context of Oxidative Stress." Oxidative medicine and cellular longevity, vol. 2021, 2021, pp. 6668365.
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RRM Academy Synopsis
Melatonin lowers egg oxidative stress in animal and lab studies
A 2021 minireview reports that melatonin lowered oxidative stress and improved egg quality, mostly in animal and lab studies. Topics were ovarian aging, egg freezing, lab egg maturation, and PCOS. Human data come from several randomized trials.
Key Findings
Mice given melatonin in drinking water from 13 weeks to 43 weeks ovulated more oocytes and had significantly higher fertilization and blastocyst rates than control mice.
The authors retrieved no clinical trials of melatonin in human ovarian aging and, as far as they know, no prospective studies of melatonin during human oocyte vitrification freezing.
In a 2020 study, melatonin added to cultured human oocytes significantly raised maturation at the GV and MI stages and the rate of high-quality blastocysts; three healthy babies were born.
Several randomized trials link oral melatonin to better oocyte quality and pregnancy rates in later ART cycles. Double-blinded trials in PCOS (also called PMOS, Polyendocrine Metabolic Ovarian Syndrome) report better ART outcomes.
A follow-up cohort of 59 adolescents with insomnia, with a mean melatonin use of 3.1 years, found adverse events no more frequent than in the placebo group.
Interpretation
The article is a minireview, a short summary of published studies, and it pools no data. Much of the evidence on how melatonin works comes from mice, rats, cows, and cultured oocytes. The human fertility studies it cites involve IVF cycles, cultured human oocytes, or women with PCOS. The authors state that long-term safety and wider clinical use need high-quality, multicenter prospective studies.
RRM Context
RRM clinicians look at ovulation, ovarian function, and the metabolic and inflammatory drivers behind them as root causes. The PCOS section of the review addresses the same targets: ovulation, androgen excess, insulin resistance, and inflammation. Most of the human trial data it cites come from IVF cycles, which bypass the reproductive system.
Our editorial summary of this paper, not the article's abstract.
Abstract
Oxidative stress has been recognized as one of the causal mediators of female infertility by affecting the oocyte quality and early embryo development. Improving oxidative stress is essential for reproductive health. Melatonin, a self-secreted antioxidant, has a wide range of effects by improving mitochondrial function and reducing the damage of reactive oxygen species (ROS). This minireview illustrates the applications of melatonin in reproduction from four aspects: physiological ovarian aging, vitrification freezing, in vitro maturation (IVM), and oxidative stress homeostasis imbalance associated with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), emphasising the role of melatonin in improving the quality of oocytes in assisted reproduction and other adverse conditions.
