China Scientists Challenge Long-Held Fertility Principle

A team of China scientists, led by Professor Ji Wu of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, has challenged a basic biological tenet: the widely held notion that female mammals are born with their lifetime supply of eggs; the inability to create new eggs renders a female infertile once the supply of eggs is expended. The Jiao Tong University team showed that the ovaries of female mice contain cells having the characteristics of female germline stem cells, which gives them the ability to become eggs. More details...