Researchers from Imperial College London published a paper in the latest issue of "Nature Medicine" magazine saying that they found that the level of an enzyme called SGK1 in women's endometrium can directly affect women's fertility. If the level is too high, It can cause infertility, and if the content is too low, it can easily lead to miscarriage. This discovery will not only help the research and treatment of infertility or habitual abortion, but also help the development of new contraceptive drugs.

Infertility is a huge problem for many families in modern society. Studies have shown that nearly one-sixth of women have difficulty conceiving due to various reasons, and one percent of women will have habitual miscarriages after conception.

Researchers from Imperial College London, UK, studied the physiological indicators of 106 women with unexplained infertility or habitual miscarriage and found that their troubles were related to SGK1 in the endometrium. The content levels are directly related. The SGK1 content in the endometrium of women with unexplained infertility is higher than that of ordinary people, while the SGK1 content of women with habitual abortion is lower than that of ordinary people. Through further experiments on mice, the researchers found that during the fertile period of mice, the level of SGK1 in the endometrium decreased. During this period, if a copy of the SGK1 gene was injected into the endometrial cells of mice to increase the level of the protein, the level of the protein would decrease. As a result, mice cannot conceive; and if the expression of SGK1 gene in mice is blocked and its level is reduced, although the mice will have no problem getting pregnant, the endometrium will be more fragile, leading to intrauterine bleeding and miscarriage.

Researchers said that SGK1 serves as a fertility molecular switch, and its content in endometrial cells directly affects a woman's fertility and is the key to successful pregnancy. Using drugs to reduce the level of SGK1 in endometrial cells of infertile women before they undergo artificial insemination can improve the success rate of artificial insemination. Increasing the level of SGK1 can be regarded as a new contraceptive method, and new contraceptive drugs can be developed accordingly.