Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is one of the most common forms of infertility. Dr Caroline Decourt has found a possible cause for the development of the disorder and won the Research Staff Speaker Prize at the recent Otago Medical School Research Society meeting.
The work, carried out in Prof Greg Anderson's laboratory, used a mouse-model of PCOS which recapitulates hallmarks of PCOS such us anovulation and obesity. Caroline hypothesized that androgen hormones such as testosterone may act on a specific set of neurons in the brain, leading to over-activation and thereby disfunction of the circuits which control the estrous cycle. Indeed, she found that deletion of the androgen receptor from these cells restored ovulation in the mice, providing new directions for the development of more refined treatments.