Vitamin C conveys geroprotection on primate ovaries

Abstract

Ovarian aging plays a pivotal role in female reproductive health, with implications for treatment strategies and quality of life. However, the potential of a single pharmaceutical agent to mitigate primate ovarian aging remains largely unexplored. Our 3.3-year study in monkeys demonstrates that oral vitamin C has geroprotective effects against ovarian aging. Vitamin C diminishes key aging biomarkers, including oxidative stress and follicular depletion. Using a single-cell transcriptomic clock, we show that vitamin C can reduce the biological age of oocytes by 1.35 years and somatic cells by 5.66 years. This effect is partly mediated by the NRF2 pathway, which alleviates ovarian cell senescence and inflammation. Our findings highlight the role of vitamin C in combating primate ovarian aging and provide insights for developing interventions against human ovarian aging.

Keywords: NRF2; aging; aging clock; antioxidant; inflammation; ovary; oxidative stress; primate; senescence; vitamin C.