Abstract:
The publication of a report in Nature in 2004 by the Tilly group suggesting that mouse ovaries are
capable of generating oocytes de novo post-natally, has sparked interest in a problem long thought
to have been resolved from classical studies in a variety of mammalian species. Within a nearly two
year time period, laboratories around the world have taken up the challenge to dogma raised by
this initial report, either to test this concept in an experimental basic science setting or give
direction to clinical applications that could result, were the original premises of this work in the
mouse valid for extrapolation to humans. This review provides a status report for this promising
area of research, (1) to summarize recent findings in the literature with respect to the validity of
the original hypothesis proffered by the Tilly group, and, (2) to gauge the potential utility of ovarian
stem cells as a treatment for certain forms of human infertility.
Description:
© 2006 Hutt and Albertini. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any
medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The definitive version was published in Journal of Experimental & Clinical Assisted Reproduction 3 (2006): 6, doi:10.1186/1743-1050-3-6.
