Table 5.

Molecular mechanism affected by treatment with DHEA.

No	Author	Gene Tested	Outcomes			Pathway Involved
			Upregulated	Downregulated	No Difference
1	Narkwichean et al. [14]	(i).PTX 3 (ii).HAS2 (iii).PTGS2 (iv).GREM1 (v).AREG (vi).ERED (vii).BTC (viii). EGF-like signalling molecules	-	-	PTGS2, HAS2, PTX3, GREM1, AREG, EREG, BTC	-Molecular markers of oocyte quality
2	Tsui et al. [13]	(i).HAS2 (ii).VCAN (iii).THBS2 (iv).RUNX2 (v).CBX3 (vi).TRIM28 (vii).BCL (viii). BAX (ix).ANKRD57	HAS2, VCAN, THBS1	RUNX2, CBX3, TRIM28, BCL2, BAX, ANKRD57	-	-Extracelluar Matrix formation -Cell development and differentiation -Apoptosis regulation
3	Lin et al. [15]	(i).BCL2 (ii).BAX (iii).Cytochrome c (iv).Caspase 3 (v).Caspase 9 (vi).Mitochondrial dehydrogenase activity	BCL2,Mitochondrial dehydrogenase activity	BAX, Cytochrome c, Caspase 3, Caspase 9	-	-Apoptosis regulation -Mitochondrial activity
4	Lin et al. [16]	(i).BAX (ii).BAD (iii).BCL2 (iv).Cytochrome c (v).Caspase 3 (vi).Caspase 9 (vii).TFAM	BCL2 TFAM	BAX, BAD, Cytochrome c, Caspase 3, Caspase 9	-	-Apoptosis regulation -Mitochondrial activity
5	Hou et al. [17]	PGAM5		PGAM5	-	-Mitochondrial activity → Mitochondrial fission