Mouse study looks at safety of stem cell therapy for early menopause – Medical Xpress

Posted: May 19, 2017 at 5:45 am

May 18, 2017

Now that we know that egg-making stem cells exist in adult rodents and humans and that these cells can be transplanted into mice with premature ovarian failure to produce offspring, the next question is to assess whether the offspring from the egg-making stem cells of a single adult mouse are biologically normal compared to natural births. On May 18 in the journal Molecular Therapy, researchers in China show that female mice with early menopause that receive egg-making stem cells from another mouse are capable of producing healthy pups 2 months later with no observable genetic malfunctions.

"One of our aims is to cure the disease of premature ovarian failure using female germline stem cells," says senior author Ji Wu, a reproductive biologist at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. "Before this treatment can be applied to humans, we need to know the mechanism of female germline stem cell development and safety after transplantation of single mouse female germline stem cells."

Premature ovarian failure, also called early menopause, is the loss of normal ovarian function, and thereby the release of eggs, before the age of 40. The condition is rare, affecting 200,000 women in the United States per year, and is incurable, although it can be treated with hormone supplements. Multiple groups are now looking at whether stimulating tissue regeneration or using stem cell transplants could help.

In the Molecular Therapy study, Wu and her colleagues isolated and characterized female germline stem cells from a single transgenic mouse with cells that show green fluorescence when activated by a blue laser. This allowed the researchers to observe and analyze the development of the transplanted stem cells, which were introduced to the ovaries of other mice using a fine glass needle.

Wu and colleagues found that the transplanted egg-producing stem cells exhibited a homing ability and began to differentiate into early-stage oocytes when they reached the edge of the ovary. The oocytes spent a few weeks maturing and yielded offspring within 2 months. The researchers then demonstrated that the developmental mechanisms of eggs derived from transplanted germline stem cells were similar to that of normal eggs.

"The results are exciting because it's not easy to get offspring from female germline stem cells derived from a single mouse," Wu says.

Wu's lab is also working to establish female egg-producing stem cell lines from scarce ovarian tissues derived from follicular aspiratesthe leftover cells gathered when a clinician searches a patient for oocytesthat are produced and discarded in in vitro fertilization centers worldwide. These aspirates can yield stem cells that differentiate into eggs in the lab, with the potential to be transplanted. The study not only provides a new approach to obtain human female germline stem cells for medical treatment, but also opens several avenues to investigate human oogenesis in vitro.

Explore further: Making sperm from stem cells in a dish

More information: Molecular Therapy, Wu et al.: "Tracing and characterizing the development of transplanted female germline stem cells in vivo" http://www.cell.com/molecular-therapy-family/molecular-therapy/fulltext/S1525-0016(17)30180-6 , DOI: 10.1016/j.ymthe.2017.04.019

Journal reference: Molecular Therapy

Provided by: Cell Press

In a turnabout, a biochemical self-destruct trigger found in many other types of cells appears to guard the lives of brain cells during an infection with West Nile virus.

Researchers have discovered that protection from the most severe form of malaria is linked with natural variation in human red blood cell genes. A study from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, the Wellcome Trust Centre ...

A protein called ZFP568 regulates an important fetal growth hormone called insulin-like growth factor 2 (Igf2), according to a mouse study led by researchers at the National Institutes of Health. The study is one of the first ...

Now that we know that egg-making stem cells exist in adult rodents and humans and that these cells can be transplanted into mice with premature ovarian failure to produce offspring, the next question is to assess whether ...

It's a fat-burning secret anyone interested in bone health should know. For the first time, UNC School of Medicine researchers show that exercising burns the fat found within bone marrow and offers evidence that this process ...

A Cedars-Sinai-led team of investigators has successfully repaired severe limb fractures in laboratory animals with an innovative technique that cues bone to regrow its own tissue. If found to be safe and effective in humans, ...

Please sign in to add a comment. Registration is free, and takes less than a minute. Read more

See the rest here:
Mouse study looks at safety of stem cell therapy for early menopause - Medical Xpress

Related Posts