A team of scientists at Yale School of Medicine have discovered that in-utero exposure to the hormone grhelin, a molecule that controls hunger and nutrition, can develop into a fertility problem and fewer offspring.The research and its results were presented recently in an abstract at the 2008 Society for Gynaecologic Investigation (SGI) Annual Scientific Meeting that took place in California, USA, from March 26-29.

This hormone, grhelin, also called “hunger hormone”, is produced in the stomach and brain and induces food and other energy sources intakes. It decreases the HOXA 10 gene that is involved in the development of the uterus, determining how it will develop during adulthood.

The lead author on the abstract, Hugh S. Taylor, M.D., professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences and section chief of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at Yale School of Medicine, said that in obese people “ghrelin levels are lower, and based on these preliminary findings, they may result in lower fertility”

The investigators bred mice which were deficient in ghreling production. These animals had offspring with less fertility than normal, and produced smaller litter sizes. They also had lower expression of the HOXA 10 gene, which allows proper development of the uterus in the embryo. In the adults, it helps the uterus provide a proper environment for the embryo.

Taylor added that the findings stress out the key importance of nutrition in fertility, as well as energy use and appropriate ghrelin levels for normal uterine development. He said as well that “obesity may have an effect on pregnancy in the next generation. His team will study further the effects of low ghrelin levels on humans.