Why is it in news?

Scientists have succeeded for the first time in growing human eggs in a laboratory from the earliest stages in ovarian tissue all the way to full maturity — a scientific step that had previously been taken in mice.

Details

• Publishing their result in the journal Molecular Human Reproduction on Friday, scientists from Britain and the United States said it could one day help in developing regenerative medicine therapies and new infertility treatments.
• In previous studies, scientists had developed mouse eggs in a laboratory to the stage where they produced live offspring, and had also matured human eggs from a relatively late stage of development.
• This latest work, by scientists at two research hospitals in Edinburgh and the Center for Human Reproduction in New York, is the first time human eggs have been developed outside the human body from their earliest stage to full maturity.
• But the technology remains at an early stage, and much more work is needed to make sure that the technique is safe and optimised before it can be ascertained that whether these eggs remain normal during the process, and can be fertilised to form embryos that could lead to healthy babies. But it’s a considerable breakthrough nonetheless and holds great potential in future.

Possible applications

• The discovery could in future help cancer patients wishing to preserve their fertility while undergoing chemotherapy treatment, improve fertility treatments, and deepen scientific understanding of the biology of the earliest stages of human life.

Source

The Hindu