HUMAN EMBRYO: Women may not be limited to the eggs they are born with, as researchers have discovered human ovarian stem cells capable of differentiating into oocytes. PHOTO RESEARCHERS, CLAUDE EDELMANN
Y.A.R. White et al., “Oocyte formation by mitotically active germ cells purified from ovaries of reproductive-age women,” Nat Med, 18:413–21, 2012.
Every middle schooler learns that women are born with all the eggs they will ever produce, limiting their options for reproductive treatment. But Jonathan Tilly of Massachusetts General Hospital and colleagues have now isolated germline stem cells from human ovaries that can differentiate into oocytes.
Tilly had previously found ovarian stem cells in mice, but needed to confirm their existence in humans. Using a fluorescent-labeled antibody that binds to a protein expressed on the surface of the germline stem cells but not on oocytes, the researchers isolated a population of cells from human ovaries that expressed this and other stem cell markers.
Using standard ...
