Slashdot Mirror
Stem Cells That May Make Eggs Found In Women
sciencehabit writes "Men typically produce working sperm as long as they live, but most textbooks say female mammals are born with all the egg cells, or oocytes, they will ever have. Since 2004, however, reproductive biologist Jonathan Tilly of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston has challenged that conventional wisdom, arguing that in mice—and perhaps also in humans—there must be an ongoing source of new eggs. Today, Tilly and his colleagues report isolating rare cells in ovarian tissue from adult women that can grow in lab dishes and form immature oocytes. The potential egg stem cells could help scientists devise new ways to help rescue the fertility of women who have to undergo cancer treatments or who suffer from premature menopause."
The science is settled. What's up with these finite-egg deniers?
...or even regular menopause.
They do way better. Stem cells are indeterminent posts. They are any post you like.
To offset political mods, replace Flamebait with Insightful.
I'd like to see them make toast or bacon.
Turn women into infinite baby-making machines. It'll be like Bees, but nobody will protect the queen!
All this research and money to keep women fertile for a few more years, but when one of doesn't want children, we get a big fat no from doctors when asking for a tubal. Same goes for you guys when wanting a vasectomy.
It's ridiculous.
Most women lose their fertility for a reason. Whether it's menopause or cancer, getting pregnant is not a good idea in either case.
This is Slashdot... do we care about the inner workings of a woman's body?
Anybody opposed to atomic bombs is anti-science.
This is eggstraordinary news and eggactly why I come to slashdot in the first place!
I always did say you can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs.
etc. etc. Is that good enough for the pun quota?
They could be an excellent source of medical stem cells without the whole is a fertilized egg the same as a bouncing baby argument.
How did the medical community miss this? Is this another 'we didn't bother checking with actual women' thing that seems to be plaguing them?
What is with that? I thought one of the benefits of being an MD was access to lots of women....
They showed that the mouse stem cell-derived oocytes can be fertilized by sperm. It would have been nice if they did this for the human-derived cells too so we'd know they really work.
Stem Cells That May Make Eggs Found In Women
So, as opposed to the egg cells found in men?
So my 30-year infatuation with Betty White may no be in vein after all?
"Men typically produce working sperm as long as they live..."
....
Well, yeah. Men typically op-test the sperm banks as often as possible.
Maintenance is important
For in politics, as in religion, it is equally absurd to aim at making proselytes by fire and sword. - Publius
"rescue the fertility of women who have to undergo cancer treatments or who suffer from premature menopause."
They already have a solution for that. It's called adoption. Until we figure out how to sufficiently take care of the children there are on this planet we shouldn't be going out of our way to make new ones.
While interesting from a scientific point of view, why are we obsessed with fertility when some people have more children than they can take care of? Perhaps we can address fertility issues caused by rare events like cancer, or the fertility of women as they get older as a solution to a shortage of orphans.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
did you push the button?
http://i718.photobucket.com/albums/ww186/prufrock55/push-button-receive-bacon.png
Pregnancy in forty-five-year-old women is a dangerous proposition.
If it's dangerous for the mother, think of the child in the womb
Babies born by older mothers have much higher chances of having being born with many types of defects
Down syndrome is just one of them.
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
Yeah, I don't think this is going to work...unless the Batman cape and cowl really does get your juices flowing.
*sucks thumb*
What an archaeological Discovery!
I love this one!
Wouldn't it be cheaper to go to an orphanage, and adopt a child?
Or get a cat?
Also, when you have your own child, then hopefully you have (some) idea of what might be in store for you genetics/environment wise. You know the family history (if it's bad, then maybe adoption *IS* a better option).
You also know that you aren't going to run into that possibly difficult moment where the child you've raised decides to look for the genetic parents. Knowing some people that have been adopted, the whole birth-parent-genetic-parent can be hard on a kid and on a family.
One fear of mine would be not knowing the parent of your child, and the circumstances of birth. Was the parent an alcoholic or drug user? Did the child get enough nourishment, etc while in the womb? Many children are given up because of a bad home environment, which often might have adverse factors later affecting said child's health.
That being said, I have in previous relationships discussed the possibilities of adoption. In one case it was with a partner who was somewhat older than me, and past child-bearing prime. In another case I was with somebody who did have some fertility issues and was concerned whether that might affect our relationship later on.
For me, adoption was a viable option but generally secondary to having our own child. For some others, adoption is a way to avoid personal genetic flaws or the pains of childbirth. For yet others, it's a way to give a chance to a child who may otherwise have been left behind by society, but people doing so had better be sure they're ready to face all the aspects of adoption, both good and bad.
So it's now acceptable to refer to them as chicks?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Occasionally there are news about how sperm can become redundant and some unpleasant banter about men becoming extinct comes along. Can we conclude from these news that the opposite could happen, ie: stem cells from a man being set up to generate his own egg?
Slashdotters would then be able to reproduce asexually, which would be clear progress :)
Now the uber morality wizards will have to apply their opinions as to the moral issues raised by this threatening discovery.
Well where else did they expect to find them? In brocolli?
I've read scifi stories of society not needing men. Women could clone and bear children themselves. With stem-cell eggs and potentially wombs in males, then the flip could be true.