NO OVARIES REQUIRED: VIABLE EGGS GROWN IN A DISH

Scientists have successfully coaxed mouse stem cells to develop into functional eggs in a dish – that then grew into baby mice, according to a study in Developmental Biology.

This has implications for assisted reproductive technologies in the future, because it may provide an alternative to egg donors.

A team of researchers, led by Takashi Yoshino of Kyushu University, Japan, developed culture conditions in a petri dish that imitated ovarian follicles to recreate the process that stem cells normally take to turn into eggs. This resulted in viable eggs that could later be fertilised via in vitro fertilisation (IVF) and implanted into mouse wombs. They called the lab-grown follicle cells “reconstituted Ovarioids” (rovarioids).

Previously, it was hard to grow the oocytes and ova in a petri dish because the ovarian follicles are essential in the process, so the team developed a culture as an “incubator” in which the eggs could grow, outside of the ovary.