Int J Med Sci 2023; 20(3):366-375. doi:10.7150/ijms.80189 This issue Cite
Review
1. Center Laboratory of the Fourth Affiliated Hospital, China Medical University, Shenyang 110032, China.
2. Affiliated Hospital of Changchun University of Chinese Medicine, Changchun 130021, China.
3. Third Affiliated Clinical Hospital to Changchun University of Chinese Medicine, Changchun 130021, China.
4. Institute of Chinese Materia Medica, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing 100700, China.
# These authors contributed equally to this work.
Contemporary scientists need no “p value” and “relative risk” statistics to be exquisitely aware of the increasing prevalence of obesity and complications posed by obesity. It is now well recognized that obesity is strongly associated with type 2 diabetes, hypertension, vascular disease, tumors and reproductive disorders. Obese women show lower levels of gonadotropin hormones, reduced fecundity, higher miscarriage rates and poorer outcomes of in vitro fertilization, revealing that obesity affects female reproduction. In addition, adipose tissue contains special immune cells and obesity-induced inflammation is a chronic, low-grade inflammatory response. Herein, we mainly review detrimental influences of obesity in the complete process of female reproduction, including hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian axis, oocyte maturation, embryo and fetal development. In the latter part, we view obesity-induced inflammation and discuss related epigenetic impact on female reproduction.
Keywords: obesity, female reproduction, infertility, oocytes, adipokines