A new study on the reproductive capacity of female mammals
For decades, the biologists have generally accepted the theory which states that the ordinary female mammals come to life with a limited number of eggs, and that there was no chance that the females could ever produce any other eggs during her adult life.
In 2004, a research group at Harvard Medical School nevertheless found that the oocytes in the ovaries of female mice died too fast as to fulfill for the lifetime of the female. Further research output the presence of cells known as female germline stem cells (FGSCs), presumably responsible for the generation of oocytes. Unfortunately, the efforts to produce a culture of such cells gave no visible results.
Until now. Nature Cell Biology has reported that a chinese research team conducted by Doctor Ji Wu of Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China has tried with a technique called immunomagnetic isolation in which tiny magnetic beads coated with an antibody latch onto a protein expressed only by germline stem cells. Then, a magnetic screen collects the cells with attached beads. The research group was able to isolate female germline stem cells (FGSCs) from both newborn and adult specimens of lab mice. What is more, the culture of cells lead to several cycles of cellular division and even after being submitted to environmental pressures such as freezing and thawing.
What turns out really amazing is that the cells were transplanted (after being marked with GFP - Green Fluorescent Protein) to previously sterilized females. The specimens - after copulating with ordinary males - were able to give birth to normal, fertile offsprings.
Indeed such results have raised the public concern on the subject of prolonging the fertility of women, and why not, doing more extensive research based on the current results of the Chinese group in order to work out a positive treatment for the human infertility. Based on the results of the study, there might be an open way to obtain a "cure" to one of the most frustrating conditions for a considerable proportion of the couples. But, the debate might also fire up, as there is also an odd chance that some mature women can conceive after the natural biological time for it has gone. Time will tell.
Source: Science Magazine
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