By The Wall Street Journal

February 26, 2012

BOSTON -- Researchers said they have transformed stem cells isolated from women's ovaries into viable-looking eggs, a provocative experiment that might suggest new ways for treating infertility.

Biologists have long held that women are born with a finite supply of eggs that gets depleted with age. The latest experiment, published in Nature Medicine, describes how rare stem cells found in the ovary could potentially be coaxed into rejuvenating the natural egg supply.

Men produce sperm all their life. Now, women "are no longer faced with the idea that there's a fixed bank account of eggs at birth with only withdrawals and no deposits," said Jonathan Tilly, a reproductive biologist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and lead author of the paper. The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and other groups.

The research is at an early stage, and the quest for practical applications could founder on many obstacles. The human egg is an unstable cell prone to genetic error. Creating eggs from stem cells could enhance those risks.

"When you amplify stem cells in culture they can become unstable," said David Albertini, a reproductive biologist at the University of Kansas Medical Center, who was not involved in the study. "There's a difference between Mother Nature doing this" and attempting it in a lab.

Underpinning the new approach is Tilly's discovery that the ovaries of reproductive-age women harbor tiny quantities of stem cells that can potentially be isolated and then cultured in the lab to become oocytes, or normal, immature egg cells.

The goal would be that instead of freezing and storing a woman's eggs for use at a later date, doctors would extract and freeze a small piece of her ovarian tissue containing stem cells -- a potentially less-invasive and faster procedure. Freezing and thawing could also damage stem cells less than they would eggs, which hold a lot more water.

Infertility affects seven million, or 12 percent, of all women in the US, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About half seek treatment, few get it, and not all are successful. Some procedures can be lengthy, expensive and unpleasant.

The ovary of a female fetus at five months holds seven million eggs, but that number drops to one million at birth and 300,000 or fewer by puberty. The supply keeps falling and gets exhausted at menopause, typically when a woman is in her late 40s or early 50s. Biologists have believed there was no way to increase the supply of eggs.

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204653604577247363486004218.html

Reader Reaction We reserve the right to remove any content at any time from this Community, including without limitation if it violates the Community Rules. We ask that you report content that you in good faith believe violates the above rules by clicking the Flag link next to the offending comment. New comments are only accepted for two weeks from the date of publication.

See the original post:
Stem cell advance offers hope for infertility