Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Correspondence
  • Published:

Adult human and mouse ovaries lack DDX4-expressing functional oogonial stem cells

Nature Medicine volume 21, pages 1116–1118 (2015)Cite this article

Subjects

To the Editor

Whether or not oogonial stem cells (OSCs) exist in the adult mammalian ovary has been the subject of much debate. In 2012, White et al. reported that OSCs could be purified from adult human and mouse ovaries by DEAD box polypeptide 4 (DDX4) antibody–based fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS), and that these isolated OSCs could form oocytes after in vitro manipulation1. The use of DDX4 as a cell surface marker is controversial based on the well-established cytoplasmic location of the protein2,3. Therefore, we followed the reported protocol and performed the cell isolation with FACS with both human and mouse ovaries1. The results in this paper are the summary of independent work carried out in the laboratories of Lin Liu, Fredrik Lanner, Outi Hovatta, and Kui Liu.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Cell isolation with DDX4-specific antibody–based FACS from adult human and mouse ovaries.

References

  1. White, Y.A.R. et al. Nat. Med. 18, 413–421 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Tanaka, S.S. et al. Genes Dev. 14, 841–853 (2000).

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Noce, T., Okamoto-Ito, S. & Tsunekawa, N. Cell Struct. Funct. 26, 131–136 (2001).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Woods, D.C. & Tilly, J.L. Nat. Protoc. 8, 966–988 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Mandelbaum, J. et al. Cancer Cell 18, 568–579 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Heidenreich, B., Rachakonda, P.S., Hemminki, K. & Kumar, R. Curr. Opin. Genet. Dev. 24, 30–37 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Schmidt, D. et al. Development 131, 933–942 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Muzumdar, M.D., Tasic, B., Miyamichi, K., Li, L. & Luo, L. Genesis 45, 593–605 (2007).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Johnson, J. et al. Cell 122, 303–315 (2005).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Zou, K. et al. Nat. Cell Biol. 11, 631–636 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Handel, M.A., Eppig, J.J. & Schimenti, J.C. Cell 157, 1257–1261 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Zhang, H., Adhikari, D., Zheng, W. & Liu, K. Reproduction 146, R229–R233 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by grants to O.H. from the Swedish Research Council, the Karolinska Institute and Stockholm County Council Research Funds (ALF); by a grant to L.L. from the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) of China National Basic Research Program (2010CB94500); by a grant to F.L. from the Ragnar Söderberg Foundation, the Swedish Research Council (2013-32485-100360-64) and the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (ICA12-0001); and by grants to K.L. from the Jane and Dan Olssons Foundation, the LUA/ALF-medel Västra Götalandsregionen, AFA Insurance, the Swedish Research Council and the Swedish Cancer Foundation; and by grants (HIRP100680 and RP110444) to J.-A.G. from the Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT), the Texas Emerging Technology Fund under Agreement no. 300-9-1958, the Robert A. Welch Foundation (grant no. E-0004), and the Swedish Cancer Fund. S. Petropoulos is supported by the Mats Sundin Postdoctoral Fellowship.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Hua Zhang and Sarita Panula: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden

    Hua Zhang, Kiran Busayavalasa, Lian Liu, Xin Li, Sanjiv Risal, Yan Shen, Jingchen Shao & Kui Liu

  2. Division of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Department of Clinical Sciences, Intervention and Technology, Karolinska Institute and Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden

    Sarita Panula, Sophie Petropoulos, Romana Raphaela Gerner, Mona Sheikhi, Pauliina Damdimopoulou, Fredrik Lanner & Outi Hovatta

  3. Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden

    Sophie Petropoulos, Daniel Edsgärd & Rickard Sandberg

  4. Cancer Center, Qilu Hospital of Shandong University, Shandong, China

    Lian Liu

  5. Department of Clinical Chemistry and Transfusion Medicine, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Gothenburg, Sweden

    Meng Liu & Susann Li

  6. College of Life Sciences, Nankai University, Tianjin, China

    Dongdong Zhang, Xiaoxi Zhang & Lin Liu

  7. Division of Internal Medicine I (Gastroenterology, Department of Medicine, Endocrinology and Metabolism), Medical University Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria

    Romana Raphaela Gerner

  8. Department of Biosciences and Nutrition, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden

    Pauliina Damdimopoulou

  9. Department of Medicine, Center for Hematology and Regenerative Medicine (HERM), Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden

    Iyadh Douagi

  10. Center for Nuclear Receptors and Cell Signaling, University of Houston, Houston, Texas, USA

    Jan-Åke Gustafsson

Authors
  1. Hua Zhang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Sarita Panula
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Sophie Petropoulos
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Daniel Edsgärd
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Kiran Busayavalasa
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Lian Liu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Xin Li
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Sanjiv Risal
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. Yan Shen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  10. Jingchen Shao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  11. Meng Liu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  12. Susann Li
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  13. Dongdong Zhang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  14. Xiaoxi Zhang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  15. Romana Raphaela Gerner
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  16. Mona Sheikhi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  17. Pauliina Damdimopoulou
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  18. Rickard Sandberg
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  19. Iyadh Douagi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  20. Jan-Åke Gustafsson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  21. Lin Liu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  22. Fredrik Lanner
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  23. Outi Hovatta
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  24. Kui Liu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Outi Hovatta or Kui Liu.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Text and Figures

Supplementary Methods, Supplementary Figures 1–4 and Supplementary Tables 1–2 (PDF 1275 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Zhang, H., Panula, S., Petropoulos, S. et al. Adult human and mouse ovaries lack DDX4-expressing functional oogonial stem cells. Nat Med 21, 1116–1118 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.3775

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.3775

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing