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Stiffer ovarian tissue disrupts cellular connections needed for egg development, lab experiments reveal

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Stiffer ovarian tissue disrupts cellular connections needed for egg development, lab experiments reveal

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As ovaries age, the tissue surrounding developing eggs becomes stiffer, changing the environment in which they mature. How this physical change affects egg development and quality has remained poorly understood.

Researchers at the College of Design and Engineering at the National University of Singapore (NUS CDE) and the Department of Biological Sciences at the NUS Faculty of Science have now shown how a stiffer environment disrupts the fine cellular connections between eggs and the cells that nourish them. In laboratory experiments using tissue from preclinical models cultured in stiff materials, they targeted a signaling pathway in these cells and partly restored egg maturation, even while the surrounding environment remained stiff.

The study was led by assistant professor Jennifer Young from the Department of Biomedical Engineering at NUS CDE and professor Rong Li from the Department of Biological Sciences at NUS. The work was carried out together with the Mechanobiology Institute (MBI), a Research Centre of Excellence hosted at NUS, where Li is the director and Young is a principal investigator. The findings were published in Aging Cell on Aug. 13, 2026.

"Our findings suggest that some of the effects of ovarian tissue stiffening on egg development may be targetable," said Young.



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