Mouse pups born out of lab-grown eggs for the first time

Japanese researchers have successfully produced functional mouse eggs entirely in cell culture. For the first time, Katsuhiko Hayashi and colleagues generated mature egg cells using pluripotent stem cells derived from both embryos and adults. The team subjected the new egg cells to in vitro fertilization to develop embryos, which were then transferred into surrogate mice. Some of those pregnancies resulted in the birth of healthy and fertile mouse pups.

Authors:

Orie Hikabe, Nobuhiko Hamazaki, Go Nagamatsu, Yayoi Obata, Yuji Hirao, Norio Hamada, So Shimamoto, Takuya Imamura, Kinichi Nakashima, Mitinori Saitou & Katsuhiko Hayashi

Corresponding author:

Katsuhiko Hayashi, Fukuoka, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan

Original paper published in Nature on October 17, 2016.