メディエイゴ

On April 12, the world famous(1) journal “Nature Cell Biology(2)”(the internet version(3)) published a new research achievement done by the research team led by(4) Professor Wu Ji from School of Life Sciences(5) & Biotechnology(6), Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

The traditional view holds that female and the vast majority of(7) the female mammals(8) have the oocytes(9) produced only during the fetus period(10), and after birth the number of oocytes will no longer increase, instead it will decrease year by year(11), which means that after birth there is no existence of ovarian(12) germline stem cells(13) (GSCs).

After a long period of the study, the research has for the first time found GSCs in the ovary(14) of the postnatal(15) mice(16) (including adult mice and postnatal day 5(17) mice). Meanwhile, a variety of(18) ways were tried to further isolate(19) the GSCs, find out the culture condition(20) suitable for their growth and find germline stem cell self-renewal(21). Next, a series of(22) biochemical(23), cellular(24), genetic(25) and molecular biology(26) approaches were applied to identify the germline stem cell lines. Finally, the GSCs were transplanted(27) into ovaries of infertile(28) mice and produced new oocytes which would grow and mature, and the mice produced normal offspring(29) after mating with male mice.

This amazing finding has changed people’s traditional view, launched a challenge to the textbook and opened a new research field. The research result can provide a new source of oocytes for animal biotechnology and human being, establish transgenic animals(30) by using germ cells(31) and develop fine animal species(32).