Twice weekly injections of the hormone kisspeptin may provide a new treatment to restore fertility in some women. The research is being presented at the Society for Endocrinology BES meeting in Manchester. The findings show that twice-weekly injections of kisspeptin can lead to increases in the levels of sex hormones, which control the menstrual cycle. This is the first study to show this effect can be maintained over the long term and it may lead to new therapies for women whose infertility is due to low sex hormone levels.
Kisspeptin is a product of the KISS-1 gene and is a key regulator of reproductive function. Animals and humans lacking kisspeptin function do not go through puberty and remain sexually immature. A team led by Dr Waljit Dhillo of Imperial College London studied women with a condition called hypothalamic amenorrhoea, where a deficiency in sex hormone levels prevents menstruation, resulting in infertility. This affects several thousand women in the UK each year. Previously, Dr Dhillo's group found that a one-off injection of kisspeptin caused an increase in sex hormone production in these women, but further daily administration was not effective as the system stopped responding. The aim of the present study was to examine kisspeptin's potential as a fertility treatment by finding a dose regimen that would maintain sex hormone production over a sustained period of time.
Over eight weeks, a group of 10 women with hypothalamic amenorrhoea were either given twice-weekly injections of kisspeptin>