UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH, DAVID ALBERTINIFor the first time, scientists have nurtured human eggs from an immature state to the stage where they would be ready to be fertilized by sperm. The maturation was done entirely in the lab, researchers reported last month (January 30) in Molecular Human Reproduction.
The work is “an impressive technical achievement,” Darren Griffin, a genetics professor at Kent University in the U.K. who did not take part in the work, tells Reuters. It could help cancer patients preserve their fertility, improve infertility treatments, and “deepen scientific understanding of the biology of the earliest stages of human life,” he adds.
In the study, reproductive biologist Evelyn Telfer of the University of Edinburgh and colleagues collected ovarian tissue samples from 10 women who were having elective caesarian sections. From the samples, the team isolated follicles from which they gingerly removed 48 immature egg cells. Those eggs were then placed on a membrane with growth-supporting proteins and allowed to mature. Nine showed signs of meiosis and the potential ability to unite with ...
