4月12日，国际著名期刊Nature Cell Biology（《自然-细胞生物学》）网络版上公布了上海交通大学生命科学技术学院吴际教授研究团队的一项新的研究成果。
传统观点认为，女性和绝大多数雌性哺乳动物卵母细胞的产生仅发生在胎儿期，出生后卵母细胞数目不再增加，反而逐年减少, 这意味着出生后卵巢无生殖干细胞存在。
该研究经过长时间的探索，首次在出生后的小鼠（包括成年和出生后五天的小鼠）卵巢中发现了生殖干细胞。同时，尝试了各种方法，进一步分离出该生殖干细胞，摸索出适合其生长的培养条件，得到了能长期自我更新的生殖干细胞株。接着，运用一系列生化、细胞、遗传和分子生物学手段，鉴定了该生殖干细胞株。最后，将该生殖干细胞移植于经药物处理的不孕成年小鼠体内，能产生新的卵母细胞，并发育至成熟，与雄性交配后能生出正常后代。
这一惊人发现改变了人们的传统观点，向教科书发起了挑战，开辟出一个崭新研究领域。该研究成果能为动物生物技术和人类提供卵母细胞新来源，建立性细胞途径转基因动物和开发优良动物品种，对治疗卵巢功能早衰，不育症等雌性生殖细胞发生障碍性疾病，再生医学及抗衰老，避孕药的开发，人口调控，探索环境因素对生殖发育的影响，濒危动物的保存，动物繁殖等都具有重要意义。
该研究成果是由吴际教授指导的6名博士研究生，5名硕士研究生协同攻关，共同完成的。该研究得到了国家自然科学基金和浦江人才基金等基金的资助。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推荐原始出处：
Nature Cell Biology 12 April 2009 | doi:10.1038/ncb1869
Production of offspring from a germline stem cell line derived from neonatal ovaries
Kang Zou1, Zhe Yuan1, Zhaojuan Yang1, Huacheng Luo1, Kejing Sun1, Li Zhou1, Jie Xiang1, Lingjun Shi1, Qingsheng Yu1, Yong Zhang1, Ruoyu Hou1 & Ji Wu1
The idea that females of most mammalian species have lost the capacity for oocyte production at birth1, 2, 3, 4, 5 has been challenged recently by the finding that juvenile and adult mouse ovaries possess mitotically active germ cells6. However, the existence of female germline stem cells (FGSCs) in postnatal mammalian ovaries still remains a controversial issue among reproductive biologists and stem cell researchers6, 7, 8, 9, 10. We have now established a neonatal mouse FGSC line, with normal karyotype and high telomerase activity, by immunomagnetic isolation and culture for more than 15 months. FGSCs from adult mice were isolated and cultured for more than 6 months. These FGSCs were infected with GFP virus and transplanted into ovaries of infertile mice. Transplanted cells underwent oogenesis and the mice produced offspring that had the GFP transgene. These findings contribute to basic research into oogenesis and stem cell self-renewal and open up new possibilities for use of FGSCs in biotechnology and medicine.
School of Life Science and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China.
