NMN supplementation rescues fertility in aged mice

What's the news: NMN supplementation rescues fertility in aged female mice.

Why should we believe it: This news comes from a study published earlier this month, April 2023. The study performed by scientists at UNSW Sydney, Australia, and at Harvard University. Among the participating scientists was Dr. David Sinclair, somebody I've written up in an earlier issue of Long Youthspan.

What exactly did the study find? Female mice start to be less fertile at the ripe old age of 12 months. Scientists supplemented these mice with NMN (a precursor of bodywide enzyme NAD+) and found:

1. NMN supplementation for just 4 weeks improved all sorts of physiological markers of fertility

2. NMN supplementation reduced the time for aged female mice to get pregnant

3. NMN supplementation increased number of aged female mice who actually gave live births

But what about safety? The scientists also looked at the health of the offspring produced in these NMN-supplemented mouse moms. The result, if anything, was that the NMN baby mice were healthier, with an increase in lean body mass.

Why this is a big deal: This could be great news for aged females, both mouse and human, who are trying to conceive but cannot. NAD+ declines in our bodies as we age and this decline seems to be intimately tied to what we experience as aging.

The current study found that in mice, NAD+ levels declined particularly in oocytes, immature egg cells. NMN supplement raised NAD+ levels in oocytes, created fertility-boosting physiological improvements, and most importantly, translated into real, live, healthy mouse babies.

So what specifically can you do now: This is just one study, and in mice. We have to wait for much more research to say anything conclusively about the effect of NMN on fertility in humans.

At the same time, NMN supplementation in humans has become increasingly popular for a whole host of other anti-aging benefits. If you do consider supplementing with NMN to improve your own fertility, don't go overboard. According to the current study, the greatest improvements in fertility occurred at the lower dose of NMN.