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Reproductive Cell Activation Restores Hope in Older Women, Cancer Survivors

by Heather Mayer, DOTmed News Reporter | May 18, 2010
A dormant ovum may
come back to fertility
Aging women or women who froze ovaries prior to cancer treatments may have a chance to have children based on a method that can bring dormant reproductive cells into an active state, according to a Stanford University School of Medicine study.

While each adult human ovary has about 400,000 follicles, most of them are inactive -- a way to maintain a stable supply of mature eggs during a woman's reproductive life, lead researcher Jing Li said in an e-mail to DOTmed News.

Activating these follicles could increase the limited supply of eggs that can produce children, according to the report.
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"We tried to find an approach to allow the generation of a large number of mature eggs," said Li.

The research team used a genetic treatment in mice that induced groups of cells around an unfertilized egg -- follicles -- out of a dormant state. They treated the neonatal mouse ovaries with particles that change PTEN and P13K protein activity; these proteins have been shown to play a role in animal follicle growth.

The researchers were able to activate 54 percent of the mice follicles after treatment, Li said, and after human treatment it's expected that 70 percent of the follicles will be activated.

These treated cell clusters were transplanted into the mouse, where they developed into preovulatory follicles. These follicles are able to produce mature eggs. The mature eggs were fertilized in vitro and the embryos were implanted into a female mouse surrogate. The surrogate successfully delivered 20 healthy, fertile offspring.

When tested on human cells, the researchers found that dormant human follicles behaved similarly to the successful mice cells. But due to ethical reasons, those eggs were not fertilized, the report said.

Moving forward, activation of these dormant cells could mean women who were unable to bear children due to age, cancer treatment or premature ovarian failure might now have another chance, Li said.