By Katie Hunt – CNN –
Scientists have used human skin cells to create fertilizable eggs capable of producing early embryos, an advance that could expand possibilities for fertility treatment, according to new research.
The proof-of-concept study, published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications, involved taking the nucleus, the part of the cell that contains most of its genetic information, from an ordinary human skin cell and transplanting it into a donor egg stripped of its own nucleus. The researchers produced 82 functional human oocytes, or immature egg cells, which then underwent fertilization in the lab.
The result — an egg that shares DNA with the person who offered the skin cell and that can be fertilized with another individual’s sperm — is a milestone in developing a new approach to address infertility, although it will be at least a decade before the technique would be clinically available, according to Dr. Paula Amato, a coauthor of the study and a professor of obstetrics and gynecology in the OHSU School of Medicine.
