Pioneering lab work aims to smash women's fertility barrier

An experiment that produced human eggs from stem cells could one day be a boon for women who are desperate to have a baby, according to a study published on Sunday. The work sweeps away the belief that a woman has only a limited stock of eggs and replaces it with the theory that the supply is continuously replenished from precursor cells in the ovary, its authors said.

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In it, his team isolated egg-producing stem cells in human ovaries and then coaxed them into developing oocytes, as eggs are called. Building on a feat by Chinese scientists, they pinpointed the oocyte stem cells by using antibodies which latched onto a protein "handle" located on the side of these cells. The team tagged the stem cells with a fluorescent green protein -- a common trick to help figure out what happens in lab experiments.

The cells were injected into biopsied human ovarian tissue which was then grafted beneath the skin of mice. Within 14 days, the graft had produced a budding of oocytes. Some of the eggs glowed with the fluorescent tag, proving that they came from the stem cells. But others did not, which suggested they were already present in the tissue before the injection.

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According to a press release issued by Massachusetts General Hospital, Tilly's team are already exploring the idea of banks where oocyte stem cells can be frozen and stored, and then retrieved when a woman wants to have a baby. Human eggs are extremely delicate and likely to suffer damage when frozen and thawed, but this risk does not apply to the egg cells that make them, it said.

http://www.france24.com/en/20120226-pioneering-lab-work-aims-smash-womens-fertility-barrier