Studies on oocyte transcriptome are important to understand the biological 
pathways involved in oogenesis, totipotence and early embryonic development. 
Moreover, genes regulating physiological pathways in gametes could represent 
potential candidates for reproductive disorders. In addition to oocyte specific 
transcription factors, also the members of the p53 family could be etiologically 
involved due to their biological functions. In fact, their role in the control 
of cell cycle, apoptosis, and germ-line genome stability is well known. Female 
reproductive aging is one of the causes of fertility reduction and it is often 
associated with egg aneuploidy increase. In order to verify the potential 
involvement of p73 in reproductive aging, we determined its expression in single 
mature MII oocytes from two groups of women, younger than 35 or older than 38 
years, respectively. We found that TAp73 isoforms are down regulated in oocytes 
from women older than 38 years. We confirmed these data in pools of mouse 
oocytes. TAp73 down regulation in oocytes from women of advanced reproductive 
age could explain both the reduction of fertility and the increase of newborns 
with chromosomal abnormalities.