MOTS-c boosted energy in aging egg cells and helped old eggs mature better, in a lab and mouse study

What happened

A team at Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital and National Sun Yat-sen University in Taiwan tested MOTS-c on aging egg cells. The paper appeared online in Reproduction & Fertility on 19 October 2026.

They worked with aged human granulosa cells in the lab and with eggs from aged mice. MOTS-c boosted energy production in both and helped the cells keep their structure. Treated old eggs matured better than untreated old eggs, although they did not fully reach the levels seen in eggs from young mice.

How it works

Eggs do not mature on their own. Neighbouring granulosa cells act like a support crew, supplying the energy an egg needs to mature. That energy comes from mitochondria, the small power plants inside each cell.

With age those mitochondria run less efficiently, so the support crew has less to give. MOTS-c is a short peptide that mitochondria make themselves. In this study, adding it raised the energy output of the aged support cells and of the aged eggs.

What it means for you

This is early science, not a fertility treatment. The results come from cells in a dish and from mice, not from women, and the study did not test fertilization, embryo growth or births.

What it adds is a new piece to a growing picture: MOTS-c keeps turning up in research on how cells handle energy as they age, from muscle and metabolism to, now, the cells around an egg.

What's next

The authors say more research is needed before anything can be said about human fertility. The next steps would be studies that follow treated eggs through fertilization and embryo development, and eventually work in people.