In 2004, a team led by Jonathan Tilly reported that mice contained oogonial stem cells (OSCs), suggesting that females may be able to generate new oocytes in adulthood—a concept that was, and still is, quite controversial even though those findings have since been replicated by others. In a new report, Tilly and colleagues now perfect the purification of mouse OSCs and, using this technique, they show that similar cells exist in women of reproductive age. They also show that the mouse and human OSCs are able to give rise to oocytes in vivo (in the case of the human cells after xenotransplantation into NOD-SCID mice), while also showing that the mouse OSCs can give rise to embryos after in vitro fertilization.
- Yvonne A R White
- Dori C Woods
- Jonathan L Tilly