Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Stem Cells That May Make Eggs Found In Women

Posted by timothy on from the and-in-chickens dept.

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."

21 of 142 comments (clear)

  1. Unpossible by Kohath · · Score: 3, Funny

    The science is settled. What's up with these finite-egg deniers?

  2. Not safe by Hentes · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Most women lose their fertility for a reason. Whether it's menopause or cancer, getting pregnant is not a good idea in either case.

    1. Re:Not safe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Trains and vehicles are unsafe. Humans do not move faster than they can run for a reason. How dare we either go against god or risk finding out why evolution made us this way!

    2. Re:Not safe by morari · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Unexplained infertility is a huge medical problem.

      Is it?
      It seems like an out of control population is a much, much larger problem.

      --
      "He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune
    3. Re:Not safe by ralphdaugherty · · Score: 2

      Along those lines, a quote in TFA on why women had all the eggs they will have in the beginning and don't make eggs:

      "Then why would women have menopause?"

      I found that less than compelling reasoning from scientists.

      I was shocked to find that the biology I've been reading that says that a woman (and all female mammals) has all her eggs in the beginning is really just conjecture and that no one has ever seen the eggs stored. There's quite a lot of reasoning involved, about how important it is for integrity of DNA germ line in eggs to be produced in the beginning with a minimum of accumulated DNA damage, the opposite of male sperm being produced on an ongoing basis.

      Appears to be more wishful thinking and rationalization than anything else.

    4. Re:Not safe by martin-boundary · · Score: 2

      Most women lose their fertility for a reason.

      No. Evolution does not operate by reason or intelligence.

    5. Re:Not safe by EdIII · · Score: 2

      women have become obsolite

      Really? You must have one fantastically talented hand....

    6. Re:Not safe by blahplusplus · · Score: 3, Interesting

      "population control is inherently racist,"

      This must mean the chinese are racist? Or is it that they realize that a finite planet can only sustain a certain amount of people without doing long-term harm to their own interests as a nation?

    7. Re:Not safe by martin-boundary · · Score: 2
      Cause != Reason.

      The word reason implies some mental process or justification, an explanation or rationale for an event.

      The word cause is neutral, and is appropriate to describe factual relationships.

  3. MOD STORY DOWN.... by LostCluster · · Score: 3, Funny

    This is Slashdot... do we care about the inner workings of a woman's body?

    1. Re:MOD STORY DOWN.... by ColdWetDog · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Maybe you don't but this should freeze your balls:

      Tilly holds a patent on the human egg stem cells

      (and is starting a company to help alleviate human suffering and cash out on his find).

      Hopefully, no public funds were used in this endeavor, otherwise I smell an ethical rat...

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    2. Re:MOD STORY DOWN.... by LongearedBat · · Score: 3, Informative

      holds a patent on the human egg stem cells

      Public funds or not... in my opinion that is the rat I'm smelling.

    3. Re:MOD STORY DOWN.... by interkin3tic · · Score: 2

      This sounds like he has a patented method for screening for these cells. If it's a fancy microscope or artificial chemical that he developed, good for him. More likely it is a method of culturing cells using generic culture methods, and he is just going to try to prevent anyone else from doing anything with those cells. If that's the case, there are bigger ethical problems than funding.

  4. Re:Hypocritical by adonoman · · Score: 2

    It was easy enough for me at 25 in Canada. I walked in for a consultation. Came back a week later, 10 minutes later walked out with no future worries of more children. You just need to be able to convince the doctor that you're serious.

  5. Re:Hypocritical by ChrisMaple · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The research is expanding the knowledge of mankind and has enormous potential. We already know plenty of ways to make people sterile.

    --
    Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
  6. humans reproduce plenty by OrangeTide · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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
  7. Re:lololol by mevets · · Score: 2

    did you push the button?
    http://i718.photobucket.com/albums/ww186/prufrock55/push-button-receive-bacon.png

  8. Even more so for the infant by Taco+Cowboy · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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 !
    1. Re:Even more so for the infant by quenda · · Score: 2

      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.

      But you have completely missed the reason. It is because of the old eggs. If a 45yo woman is pregnant using a donor egg from a young woman, all those risks go away.

    2. Re:Even more so for the infant by smellsofbikes · · Score: 3, Informative

      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.

      But you have completely missed the reason. It is because of the old eggs. If a 45yo woman is pregnant using a donor egg from a young woman, all those risks go away.

      Actually, there's extensive evidence that it isn't because of old eggs: it's because as a woman gets closer to menopause her body spontaneously aborts less often, so she'll bear children with defects, that when she was in her twenties her body would've dumped. Tim Birkhead in "Promiscuity: the evolution of sperm competition" discusses this quite a bit. The theory is that when she's younger her body wants to focus its resources on only the best offspring, and as she approaches menopause, it's more important to just have kids to pass on her genes, than it is to be selective.

      --
      Nostalgia's not what it used to be.
  9. Eggs found by Hognoxious · · Score: 3, Informative

    So it's now acceptable to refer to them as chicks?

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."