UC team receives international funding for the study of female (in)fertility

The study aims to understand the impact of industrial pollutants on female infertility, in order to take preventive measures and mitigate their harmful effects in the future. Led by Renata Tavares of the Centre for Neurosciences and Cell Biology (CNC) at the University of Coimbra (UC), it has just received funding from LabEx DRIIHM (Dispositif de Recherche Interdisciplinaire sur les Interactions Hommes-Milieux).

This is the second consecutive grant - for a total of 30,000 euros - awarded by this French institution to the CNC team for the study of infertility, which joins 13 observatories worldwide dedicated to the study of human-environment interactions.

Given that the increased risk of exposure to industrial pollutants has a serious impact on the fertility of populations at risk, this two-year study will focus on assessing the reproductive potential of women who live and/or work in Estarreja, a town in the Aveiro region that is home to Portugal's second largest chemical complex and where incidents of heavy metal contamination have already been described.

"Given the increased risk of exposure due to the industrial growth we have witnessed in recent decades, it has become imperative to assess the reproductive potential of residents/workers in heavily industrialised areas, especially when there is a local history of contamination, as in the case of Estarreja," explains researcher Renata Tavares. "With the information obtained in this project, we intend not only to understand if the female reproductive potential in this area is affected, but it will also help to understand if it will be necessary to monitor other similar places in Portugal. This project may also highlight the need to implement more urgent measures to reduce contamination/pollution in Portugal and worldwide," she adds.

The CNC researcher also mentions that this project will also contribute to "the discovery of new mechanisms of action of these pollutants and, in the long term, allow the development of strategies to reduce/treat female infertility".

The members of the UC team working on this study are Renata Tavares, Ana Paula Sousa, Maria Inês Alfaiate and Maria Soares, also CNC researchers, João Ramalho-Santos, professor at the Faculty of Sciences and Technology of the University of Coimbra (FCTUC), and Teresa Almeida-Santos, professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Coimbra (FMUC).

^{Translation by Diana Taborda}