Exploration of the oogenic potential of putative germ line stem cells isolated from the ovaries of girls and adult women

几十年来，科学家们一直认为，女性出生时就拥有了所有的卵子，并且永远不会产生新的卵子。最近的研究表明，成年女性的卵巢中有一些细胞，在一定条件下能够形成新的卵子。这其中的潜在影响是巨大的。如果我们能制造出新的卵子，我们就能最终帮助那些因各种原因（包括化疗、过早绝经或正常衰老）而不孕的女性恢复生育能力。我们需要更多地了解这些细胞，确定允许它们形成卵子的条件，并了解卵子是否正常。我们最近分离出两个细胞群，我们需要对它们进行更详细的研究。该项目将确定可从不同年龄的卵巢材料中分离的细胞。然后通过体外培养系统，我们将确定这些细胞是否能形成新的卵子，以及它们是否正常。我们还将找出支持这一过程的条件，这项工作的最终目的是确定这些细胞是否能够形成卵子，这些卵子可以受精并形成正常的胚胎。

For decades, scientists have believed that women were born with all the eggs they would ever have and that no new ones could ever be made. Recent work has shown that the ovaries of adult women have cells that are capable of forming what appears to be new eggs under certain conditions. The implications of this are potentially enormous. If we could make new eggs we could eventually help restore fertility in women who have become infertile for a variety of reasons, including chemotherapy treatment, early menopause or just normal aging. We need to learn more about these cells and determine the conditions that allow them to form eggs and to know whether the eggs are normal. We have recently isolated two populations of cells and we need to study them in more detail. This project will define the cells that can be isolated from ovarian material from a range of ages. Then using a system where we can grow eggs outside the body (culture system), we will determine whether these cells can form new eggs and whether they are normal. We will also find out the conditions that support this process, The ultimate end point of this work would be to determine whether these cells were capable of forming eggs that could be fertilised and form normal embryos.