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Reproductive biology

Stem cells bear eggs

Nature volume 491, pages 535–536 (2012)Cite this article

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Researchers have coaxed cultured embryonic stem cells to develop into eggs that then give rise to normal offspring. The discovery should help to decode the molecular basis of gamete formation and might lead to treatments for infertility.

Unlike testes, ovaries do not make gametes throughout life: female mammals are born with a limited supply of oocytes (eggs), which progressively decrease in number until the menopause. This biological barrier has complicated the study both of oocyte development in mammals and of the mechanisms underlying female infertility. Reporting in the latest issue of Science, Hayashi et al.1 have induced embryonic stem cells to develop into mature oocytes that, when fertilized, give rise to apparently normal, fertile animals. Together with another report2 by the same group on the generation of functional sperm cells from embryonic stem cells, these findings provide the first efficient and accessible protocols to recapitulate male and female gametogenesis from cultured stem cells.

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Figure 1: Oogenesis from cultured stem cells.

References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. USA. They are also at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute and in the Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, Sihem Cheloufi and Konrad Hochedlinger are at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, Harvard University, Cambridge.,

    Sihem Cheloufi & Konrad Hochedlinger

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  1. Sihem Cheloufi
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  2. Konrad Hochedlinger
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Correspondence to Konrad Hochedlinger.

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Cheloufi, S., Hochedlinger, K. Stem cells bear eggs. Nature 491, 535–536 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/491535a

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