Step closer to producing sperm & eggs from stem cells

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Researchers at Stanford University, which harvested the stem cells from an embryo, claim the breakthrough could eventually cure infertility in men, birth defects and even extend the menopause in women.

Previous studies have claimed to have reproduced egg and sperm cells in the laboratory but they were always slightly damaged or malformed.

The researchers in the latest study believe their germ cells - the cells that eventually turn into sperm and eggs - are so perfect it would be possible to grow them into fully functioning reproductive cells.

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Turning Back the Reproductive Clock

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Scientific dogma has long asserted that females are born with their entire lifetime supply of eggs, and once they're gone, they're gone. New findings suggest that in nematode worms, at least, this is not necessarily so.

Molecular physiologist Marc Van Gilst, Ph.D., and colleagues at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle report that during starvation, sexually mature adult worms stop ovulating and the germline component of their reproductive system – the sex cells, including mature and maturing eggs – dies off and leaves behind nothing but a few stem cells.

However, once normal food conditions resume, the conserved stem cells can produce a brand new crop of sex cells, complete with youthful fertile eggs. This turning back of the reproductive clock took place in tiny C. elegans soil worms that were up to15 times older than worms in their reproductive prime that were fed normally.

Read more: http://www.ivanhoe.com/channels/p_channelstory.cfm?storyid=22233

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Stem cell discovery raises hopes of restoring female fertility

The theory that women are born with all the eggs they will ever have has been challenged by research that could raise the prospect of restoring female fertility and reversing the menopause.

Scientists in China have discovered that the ovaries of adult and newborn mice seem to contain stem cells that can be grown into eggs that can be fertilised to create healthy offspring.

The findings suggest that it may be possible one day to isolate and culture these stem cells from women’s ovaries, should they also exist in humans. This could provide a source of eggs to extend female fertility, which declines as the ovaries’ supply is depleted with age.

Read more: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article6082788.ece

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Now, infertile women can become mothers

In what raises hopes of infertile women becoming mothers and allowing those healthy to put their motherhood on hold without worrying about menopause, scientists have discovered a way to create eggs in sterile ovaries.

A team at Jiao Tong University in Shanghai has used the technique which involves transplanting stem cells into the ovaries to produce new eggs in infertile women or women who've passed the usual age of conception.

Read more: http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20090090691&ch=413200921900PM

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Long-Held Tenet on Women's Fertility in Question

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Sunday, April 12, 2009 - Scientists have produced strong new evidence challenging one of the most fundamental assumptions in biology: that female mammals, including women, are born with all the eggs they will ever have.

In a provocative set of experiments involving mice, Chinese researchers have shown for the first time that an adult mammal can harbor primitive cells in her ovaries that can become new eggs and produce healthy offspring, they reported today.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/12/AR2009041200967.html

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Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy

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Found on the Babies Over 50 mailing list:

I just want to suggest, once again, to those wanting to conceive using their own eggs /sperm, look into Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (here is one of many info links: http://www.hypermed.com.au/index.htm ).

Here are the bases for my surmise:

HBOT increases microcirculation (neoangiogenesis), and it also increases circulating stem cells. There has been evidence of ovarian stem cells in mice, seen in the production of new follicles.

My guess is, it might take 90-120 days following HBOT for higher quality eggs to ripen and be ovulated. Sperm quality also improves within weeks after HBOT.

I would suggest, acupuncture & herbs (and why not colon & liver cleansing) for improved hormonal balance. Optimizing nutrition/reducing stress seem obvious. Then, some brave soul, try the HBOT! It's lead to more than one "miracle cure" in brain & even spinal cord regeneration; why not the ovaries?

Plus, it's safe & virtually harmless; much easier on the body than IVF. ~Prudence

Source: Babies After 50 discussion list - babiesafter50@yahoogroups.com

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US team create clones from adult cells

January 18, 2008 - 11:42AM - A team of US researchers said they had created cloned embryos from adult human cells.

Scientists at Stemagen Corp, a reproductive lab in La Jolla, California said in an article published in the peer-reviewed journal Stem Cells that they had successfully inserted DNA from adult male skin cells into a donor egg that had had its genetic material removed.

Researchers did not address whether the embryos could have developed into human babies because that was not the point of the project and the embryos were destroyed in tests to compare their DNA to that of the volunteers.

The goal of the project is eventually to produce stem cells that match the donor's DNA, but this part of the project did not produce stem cells because the embryos were destroyed.

The development "has the potential to revolutionise our understanding and development of treatments for degenerative diseases," the team led by Andrew French wrote in the journal.

Proponents see the technology as a potential way to generate stem cells from a patient's own body that would not be rejected in potential therapies and treatments for diseases.

Embryonic stem cells can develop into any cell in the body, but their use has raised ethical concerns because an embryo must be destroyed to retrieve them. Anti-abortion advocates and religious groups have called that equivalent to taking a human life.

The US government bans the use of federal money to create new embryonic stem cell lines for research, but allows money to be used on stem cell colonies in existence before 2001.

Last year, US and Japanese scientists reprogrammed human skin cells to function like embryonic stem cells, raising the possibility of by-passing ethical considerations.

Claims of human cloning in the past have been proven false, making the scientific community wary of such declarations.

Source: http://news.smh.com.au/us-team-create-clones-from-adult-cells/20080118-1mpb.html

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New Embryo Stem Cell Technique Does “No Harm”?

On January 11th, The Washington Post ran an article about a new method of harvesting stem cells from embryos. Researchers at Advanced Cell Technologies (ACT) in Massachusetts claimed that their technique of removing only one stem cell from an eight-celled embryo should qualify them for federal funds.

The technique used by researchers is the same used by infertility clinics when conducting genetic testing on embryos. An ACT spokesman argued that many embryos biopsied in clinics are then used to achieve full-term pregnancies and this is evidence that the technique used by the researchers follows federal policy of doing “no harm.” Studies have not been done on the survival rate of embryos biopsied by infertility clinics. However, one study that was cited was published in July – it showed that parents who have had embryos biopsied before implantation have a 30 percent lower chance of giving birth. One source noted that studies that have been done have had flaws.

In addition to using infertility clinic success rates as evidence that the technique does “no harm,” researchers allowed the surviving embryos to continue to grow for five days. Eighty-four percent survived.

The technique has drawbacks for researchers. Kathy Hudson, director of the Genetics and Public Policy Center at Johns Hopkins University commented to the Post, “Embryo biopsy is tricky and requires extraordinarily good hands and technical skills. And even in the best hands, embryos are sometimes lost.”

Surviving embryos were frozen following experiments.

Source: http://www.bloggernews.net/113126

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