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Mol. Hum. Reprod. Advance Access originally published online on June 9, 2009
Molecular Human Reproduction 2009 15(7):393-398; doi:10.1093/molehr/gap036
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org
The online version of this article has been published under an open access model. Users are entitled to use, reproduce, disseminate, or display the open access version of this article for non-commercial purposes provided that: the original authorship is properly and fully attributed; the Journal and Oxford University Press are attributed as the original place of publication with the correct citation details given; if an article is subsequently reproduced or disseminated not in its entirety but only in part or as a derivative work this must be clearly indicated. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Purification of germline stem cells from adult mammalian ovaries: a step closer towards control of the female biological clock?

Jonathan L. Tilly1,2,4 and Evelyn E. Telfer3,4

1Vincent Center for Reproductive Biology, Vincent Obstetrics and Gynecology Service, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA 2Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114-2622, USA 3Institute of Cell Biology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3JR, UK

4 Correspondence address. E-mail: jtilly{at}partners.org (J.L.T.) or evelyn.telfer{at}ed.ac.uk (E.E.T.)

For decades it was believed that a non-renewable pool of oocyte-containing follicles is established in female mammals at birth. This cornerstone of reproductive biology was challenged 5 years ago by a study reporting on the presence of mitotically-active germ cells in juvenile and adult mouse ovaries. Additional findings presented in this study and others that followed further suggested that mammals retain the capacity to generate oocytes during adulthood; however, isolation of oocyte-producing germline stem cells (GSC) as unequivocal proof of their existence remained elusive. This piece of information now appears to have been provided by Ji Wu and colleagues. In addition to showing that proliferative germ cells resembling male spermatogonial stem cells can be purified from neonatal or adult mouse ovaries and maintained in vitro for months, transplantation studies demonstrated that these cells generate oocytes in ovaries of chemotherapy-sterilized recipients that fertilize and produce viable offspring. Although these findings do not establish that oogenesis occurs in adult females under physiological conditions, they strongly support the existence of GSC in adult mouse ovaries. If equivalent cells can be found in human ovaries, stem cell-based rejuvenation of the oocyte reserve in ovaries on the verge of failure may one day be realized.

Key words: germline stem cell/oogenesis/oocyte/ovary/menopause

Submitted on May 19, 2009; resubmitted on May 22, 2009; accepted on May 22, 2009.


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