Developmental and meiotic potential of oocytes derived from human ovarian germ line stem cells (OSCs) in vitro.

几十年来，科学家们一直认为，女性出生时就拥有所有的卵子，而且永远不会产生新的卵子。最近，美国的一组研究人员从成年女性的卵巢中分离出一种原始的类似干细胞的细胞。当这些细胞被注射回卵巢组织时，它们被证明能够形成似乎是新卵子(卵母细胞)的东西。这可能带来巨大的影响，但目前我们对这些细胞可能有什么能力，也可能没有什么能力知之甚少。如果我们可以制造新的卵子，我们最终可以帮助那些因各种原因而不育的女性恢复生育能力，这些原因包括化疗、更年期提前或只是正常衰老。然而，这些发现引发了争议，这些新卵能否正常发育仍存在许多问题。该项目将确定能否从不同年龄的健康女性的卵巢中分离出这些细胞。然后使用我们开发的可以在体外培养卵子的系统(培养系统)，我们将确定这些细胞是否可以形成新的卵子，它们是否正常。这项工作的最终目的将是确定这些细胞是否有能力形成可受精的卵子并形成胚胎。

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. Recently a group of researchers in the USA isolated a primitive "stem" like cell from the ovaries of adult women. These cells were shown to be capable of forming what appeared to be new eggs (oocytes) when they were injected back into ovarian tissue. The implications of this are potentially enormous, but at the moment we know very little about what these cells may or may not be capable of. 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, early menopause or just normal ageing. However, these findings have led to controversy and many questions remain as to whether these new eggs can develop normally. This project will determine whether these cells can be isolated from the ovaries of healthy women from a range of ages. Then using a system which we have developed 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. 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 embryos.