New eggs in mice ovaries

2004/04/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Biologia

This discovery can revolutionize current thinking. In fact, so far scientists have believed that women and other mammals are born with a limited number of immature eggs and no longer create them throughout their lives. According to this belief, these eggs would be gradually lost and would be exhausted to reach menopause.

They have now discovered new evidence investigating the stem cells of the ovaries of adult mice. In the experiments, it was observed that more than 30% of the follicles containing eggs were dying and, however, the number of eggs remained. According to the researchers, this can only be explained by the production of new eggs. Anyway, they still do not know if the same occurs in the human ovaries. Finding out that this is the case, ideas about fertility could change a lot.