Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Comment
. 2025 Jun 24;23(6):e3003216.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3003216. eCollection 2025 Jun.

The aging ovary stands on the shoulders of giant multinucleated cells

Avery A Ahmed  1   2 , Stephanie A Pangas  1   2   3
Affiliations
Comment

The aging ovary stands on the shoulders of giant multinucleated cells

Avery A Ahmed et al. PLoS Biol. .

Abstract

Reproductive aging is associated with declining fertility and increasing inflammation, though these events are not well understood. An exciting new study in PLOS Biology utilizes cutting-edge technologies to characterize the role of multinucleated giant cells in ovarian aging.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Multinucleated giant cells (MNGCs) proliferate with age and show unique transcriptomic profiles.
In ovaries collected from mice and nonhuman primates (NHPs), MNGC penetrance increases with reproductive age (left panel). Transcriptomic profiling of MNGCs reveals the top gene categories as degradation, energy production, and immune processes (right panel top left section). Further, MNGCs are closely associated with T-cells (right panel top right section). Additional transcriptomic analysis segregates MNGCs from macrophages and stromal cells. While stromal cells serve as controls and do not overlap with macrophages or MNGCs, macrophages and MNGCs share expression of macrophage marker F4/80. However, the authors identify Gpnmb as a unique, putative marker of ovarian MNGCs (right panel bottom section). Created in BioRender: Pangas, S. (2025) https://BioRender.com/y3bfssy.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment on

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Broekmans FJ, Soules MR, Fauser BC. Ovarian aging: mechanisms and clinical consequences. Endocr Rev. 2009;30(5):465–93. doi: 10.1210/er.2009-0006 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Lu H, Ma L, Zhang Y, Feng Y, Zhang J, Wang S. Current animal model systems for ovarian aging research. Aging Dis. 2022;13(4):1183–95. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Franceschi C, Campisi J. Chronic inflammation (inflammaging) and its potential contribution to age-associated diseases. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2014;69(Suppl 1):S4–9. doi: 10.1093/gerona/glu057 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Umehara T, Winstanley YE, Andreas E, Morimoto A, Williams EJ, Smith KM, et al. Female reproductive life span is extended by targeted removal of fibrotic collagen from the mouse ovary. Sci Adv. 2022;8(24):eabn4564. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abn4564 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Brooks PJ, Glogauer M, McCulloch CA. An overview of the derivation and function of multinucleated giant cells and their role in pathologic processes. Am J Pathol. 2019;189(6):1145–58. doi: 10.1016/j.ajpath.2019.02.006 - DOI - PubMed