Cool Stem Cell Image of the Week

Human egg grown from immature cells in ovarian tissue. (credit: David Albertini)

This week’s Cool Stem Cell Image of the Week comes to us from the lab of reproductive biologist Evelyn Telfer at the University of Edinburgh. Telfer and her team successfully grew human eggs cells from immature ovarian tissue.

This technology could revolutionize the way doctors approach infertility. For instance, when girls and young women undergo chemotherapy for cancer, their eggs are often damaged. By preserving a small piece of ovarian tissue before the cancer treatments, this method could be used to generate eggs later in life for in vitro fertilization. Much more work is necessary to figure out if these eggs are healthy and safe to use to help infertile women.

The study was recently published in Molecular Human Reproduction and was picked up this Science writer Kelly Servick.

Forget 3 blind mice, iPS cells could help 3 deaf mice hear again (Kevin McCormack)
For years scientists have been trying to use stem cells to restore hearing to people who are deaf or hearing impaired. Now a group of researchers in Japan may have found a way.

The team used human iPS cells to create inner ear cells, the kind damaged in one of the most common forms of hereditary deafness. They then transplanted them into the inner ears of mice developing in the womb that are suffering from a congenital form of hearing loss. The cells appeared to engraft and produce a protein, Connexin 30, known to be critical in hearing development.

The research, published in the journal Scientific Reports, could be an important step towards developing a therapy for congenital hearing loss in people.

UC Davis team isolates cow embryonic stem cells for the first time

An early stage cow embryo. Inner cell mass (red) is source of embryonic stem cells. (Credit: Pablo Ross/UC Davis) 

Although human embryonic stem cells (ESCs) were isolated way back in ’98, researchers haven’t had similar luck with embryonic stem cells from cows. Until this week, that is.  A UC Davis team just published a report in PNAS showing that they not only can isolate cow ESCs but their method works almost 100% of the time.

Genetic engineering of these cow stem cells could have huge implications for the cattle industry. Senior author Pablo Ross mentioned in a press release how this breakthrough could help speed up the process of generating superior cows that produce more milk, release less methane and are more resistant to disease:

“In two and a half years, you could have a cow that would have taken you about 25 years to achieve. It will be like the cow of the future. It’s why we’re so excited about this.”

These cow ESCs may also lead to better models of human disease. Because of their small size, rat and mouse models are not always a good representation of how potential therapies or drugs will affect humans. Creating stem cell models from larger animals may provide a better representation.