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，女性出生时就拥有所有的卵子，而且永远不会产生新的卵子。最近的研究表明，成年女性的卵巢具有在特定条件下能够形成新卵子的细胞。这可能会产生巨大的影响。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。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，并知道这些卵子是否正常。我们最近分离了两组细胞，我们需要对它们进行更详细的研究。这个项目将定义可以从不同年龄的卵巢材料中分离出的细胞。然后使用我们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。我们还将找出支持这一过程的条件，这项工作的最终终点将是确定这些细胞是否有能力形成可以受精的卵子并形成正常的胚胎。

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.