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Wednesday 4 April 2018 11:23am

Associate Professor Rebecca Campbell's work focuses on the neural circuits that control ovulation. “We examine how these circuits work normally, and then what might go wrong in these circuits during infertility.” The primary focus of her lab is polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), which is a very common form of female infertility. While much of the public perception of infertility is on the reproductive organs themselves, Rebecca and her team are working to understand the regions in the brain that can cause these organs to be dysfunctional; examining the source rather than the symptoms. “We're trying to dissect out the specific circuits that might be wired up differently,” Rebecca says, “so we work with a model of PCOS and compare it against a healthy model.”

The lab is diverse, in that they're not just examining the underlying circuitry, but also trying to identify possible therapeutics. One such therapeutic is an androgen receptor blocker that, when administered for 20 days in adulthood, restored the cyclicity and GABAergic innervation of one of these circuits. While the research is still very much constrained to models, this kind of result suggests that the circuits that are dysfunctional in PCOS may not be hardwired. “The reason we're so excited about it,” Rebecca says, “is because there are so few developmental events that are programmed by hormones that then can be altered.” This has lit the way for Rebecca and her lab to examine the effect of therapeutics at different developmental windows, and determine when exactly is the best time to treat PCOS to achieve the best outcome.

The current projects in the lab include examining the function of a GABA circuit in the arcuate nucleus, examining the function of subpopulations within that same circuit, and how these subpopulations impact the secretion of luteinizing hormone in normal and PCOS animals. On the other side of the spectrum the lab is investigating the behavioural effects of prenatal androgen exposure, which is one of the core environmental causes of PCOS, on both females and males. These projects use a combination of optogenetics, chemogenetics, immunohistochemistry, behavioural testing, along with a veritable sea of other techniques.

Rebecca has carved out a specific niche for herself and her team within the Centre for Neuroendocrinology, by remaining very focused on PCOS and the neural systems that drive it. “One of the real benefits of the CNE,” she says, “is that there are a lot of questions we can answer in a really collective way.” By having both, the collective neuroendocrinology connection and the niche focus, Rebecca and her lab have been able to make real strides in unravelling the secrets of PCOS and will continue to work toward understanding the intricacies of the brain's impact on fertility.

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