Related
Stories
 |
| Researchers say stem cells in ovaries may one day improve fertility treatment |
It may be
possible to one day create an "unlimited" supply of human eggs to aid
fertility treatment, US doctors say.
Researchers
have shown it is possible to find stem cells in adult women which spontaneously
produced new eggs in the laboratory.
Further
experiments on mice showed such eggs could be fertilised, according to a study in the journal Nature Medicine.
One British
expert said the study re-wrote the rule book with "exciting possibilities"
for improving fertility.
The
long-established theory is that women are born with all the eggs they will ever
have. Lead researcher Dr Jonathan Tilly, from Massachusetts General Hospital,
said this study, a follow up to one on mice in 2004, disproves that.
His team
has reported finding and isolating the stem cells which go on to produce eggs
in the ovaries of reproductive age women. It was done by searching for a
protein, DDX4, which was unique to the surface of the stem cells. This allowed
researchers to fish out the right cells.
When grown
in the laboratory, the cells "spontaneously generated" immature eggs
- or oocytes, which looked and acted like oocytes in the body.
The cells
were "matured" when surrounded by living human ovarian tissue, which
had been grafted inside mice.
There are
tight legal and ethical restrictions on research on human eggs. The same
experiments repeated using stem cells taken from mice showed the eggs could be
fertilised with sperm and produced embryos.
'Unprecedented'
Dr Tilly
said: "The primary objective of the current study was to prove that
oocyte-producing stem cells do in fact exist in the ovaries of women during
reproductive life, which we feel this study demonstrates very clearly.
"The
discovery of oocyte precursor cells in adult human ovaries, coupled with the
fact that these cells share the same characteristic features of their mouse
counterparts that produce fully functional eggs, opens the door for development
of unprecedented technologies to overcome infertility in women and perhaps even
delay the timing of ovarian failure."
He told
Nature: "These cells, when maintained outside of the body, are more than
happy to make cells on their own and if we can guide that process I think it
opens up the chance that sometime in the future we might get to the point of
having an unlimited source of human eggs."
Dr Allan
Pacey, a fertility expert at the University of Sheffield, said: "This is a
nice study which shows quite convincingly that women's ovaries contain stem cells
that can divide and make eggs.
"Not
only does this re-write the rule book, it opens up a number of exciting
possibilities for preserving the fertility of women undergoing treatment for
cancer, or just maybe for women who are suffering infertility by extracting
these cells and making her new eggs in the lab."
'Potential
landmark'
Stuart
Lavery, a consultant gynaecologist and director of IVF at Hammersmith Hospital,
said the findings were "extremely significant" and "a
potentially landmark piece of research".
He told the
BBC: "If this research is confirmed it may overturn one of the great
asymmetries of reproductive biology - that a woman's reproductive pool of
gametes may be renewable, just like a man's."
While
cautioning that the cells were "some way" from any clinical use, Mr
Lavery said they had potential, "particularly in young women facing
sterilising treatment such as chemotherapy".
Related Articles:
"Recalibration of the Human Being"– Jan 7, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll)
"Recalibration of the Human Being"– Jan 7, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll)
"Recalibration of Knowledge" – Jan 14, 2012 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: Channelling, God-Creator, Benevolent Design, New Energy, Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Reincarnation, Gaia, Old Energies (Africa,Terrorists, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela ... ), Weather, Rejuvenation, Akash, Nicolas Tesla / Einstein, Cold Fusion, Magnetics, Lemuria, Atomic Structure (Electrons, Particles, Polarity, Self Balancing, Magnetism), Entanglement, "Life is necessary for a Universe to exist and not the other way around", DNA, Humans (Baby getting ready, First Breath, Stem Cells, Embryonic Stem Cells, Rejuvenation), Global Unity, ... etc.) - New !
(Subjects: .. Health, Prescription Drugs, Homeopathy, Food, Global Unity, ... etc.) - New !
No comments:
Post a Comment