From stem cells, researchers from the Japanese Science and Technology Agency in Kyoto have managed to create first eggs and then fertile mice. The results of the research have been published today on the website of the journal Science.
The team of researcher Mitino Saitou has used two types of stem cells to form eggs. Stem cells of embryos on the one hand and pluripotent stem cells induced on the other, from adult cells, the latter.
Obtaining these stem cells has been the first step in research and the second has been to grow together with the cells of the mice gonads to create a structure called “regenerated ovary”. Subsequently, these structures have been transplanted into mice, allowing them to grow for four weeks until cells have become adult oocytes. After four weeks of egg extraction and in vitro fertilization, they are reintroduced to other mice. The final result of the study was the existence of viable mouse mice that have reached adulthood.
Thus, researchers have shown that it is possible to create fertile eggs from embryonic stem cells of mice or induced stem cells. This research group managed to do the same last year with sperm, and the results were published in the journal Cell.