Mouse study looks at safety of stem cell therapy for early menopause
"One of our aims is to cure the disease of premature ovarian failure using female germline stem cells," says senior author Ji Wu, a reproductive biologist at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. "Before this treatment can be applied to humans, we need to know the mechanism of female germline stem cell development and safety after transplantation of single mouse female germline stem cells." Premature ovarian failure, also called early menopause, is the loss of normal ovarian function, and thereby the release of eggs, before the age of 40. The condition is rare, affecting 200,000 women in the United States per year, and is incurable, although it can be treated with hormone supplements. Multiple groups are now looking at whether stimulating tissue regeneration or using stem cell transplants could help. In the Molecular Therapy study, Wu and her colleagues isolated and characterized female germline stem cells from a single transgenic mouse with cells that show green...