Pups from oocytes made with iPSCs. Female offspring were fully fertile. Credit: Katsuhiko HayashiNew spermatozoa are seldom in short supply, but oocytes—immature egg cells—are much rarer, which has made the quest to generate oocytes from stem cells as challenging as it is important. Now, Japanese researchers claim to have succeeded in coaxing embryonic and adult stem cells from female mice into becoming fully functional oocytes capable of producing viable offspring via in vitro fertilization.
The study, published today (October 4) in Science, could pave the way for a more detailed characterisation of female germ line development. It could also help to save endangered species and may open new leads for treating human infertility.
“It’s a beautiful study, a tour de force,” said David Albertini, a physiologist at the University of Kansas Medical Centre, who was not involved in the study. “It’s the first clear demonstration that stem cells, either embryonic stem cells [ESCs] or induced plutipotent stem cells [iPSCs], can actually produce something that looks, smells, and tastes like an oocyte. They got bona fide oocytes that withstood the test of time by producing pups; that’s never been done before.”
“I think the importance is two-fold,” said Renee Reijo ...
