a Institute of Cell Biology, School of Biological Sciences , University of Edinburgh , Edinburgh , UK.
b MRC Centre for Reproductive Health , Queen's Medical Research Institute, University of Edinburgh , Edinburgh , UK.
Climacteric. 2019 Feb;22(1):22-26. doi: 10.1080/13697137.2018.1543264. Epub 2019 Jan 2.
It has long been accepted that the complement of follicles within the ovary is formed before birth in humans, or shortly after birth in rodents, and that no follicles are formed thereafter. This follows entry of all oogonia into meiosis in fetal life, with no remaining germ stem cells in the ovary, in contrast to the presence of spermatogonia in the testis. This has been brought back into debate in recent years, following the demonstration of isolation of cells expressing both germline and stem markers from the postnatal ovary in several species, including humans. We describe these cells as putative ovarian stem cells. Isolation of these cells is challenging, adding to the debate as to their existence, and the validity of DDX4 as the main marker used for their isolation has also to be questioned. While different groups have used varying techniques and indeed terminology to describe these cells, the body of evidence regarding their initial characterization after isolation is growing. There remain very limited data regarding their developmental potential, but the demonstration of the production of functional oocytes from induced pluripotent stem cells and the advances in ovarian follicle culture techniques provide a basis for such studies.
长期以来，人们一直认为人类卵巢中的卵泡是在出生前形成的，或者在啮齿动物出生后不久形成的，此后不再形成卵泡。这是因为所有的卵原细胞在胎儿期都进入了减数分裂，而卵巢中没有剩余的生殖干细胞，这与睾丸中存在精原细胞形成对比。近年来，人们从包括人类在内的几种物种的产后卵巢中分离出表达生殖系和干细胞标记物的细胞，这一发现再次引发了这一争论。我们将这些细胞称为卵巢干细胞。这些细胞的分离具有挑战性，这增加了关于其存在的争论，而且 DDX4 作为用于其分离的主要标记物的有效性也需要受到质疑。尽管不同的研究小组使用不同的技术甚至术语来描述这些细胞，但关于它们在分离后的最初特征的证据正在不断增加。关于它们的发育潜力的数据仍然非常有限，但从诱导多能干细胞产生功能性卵子的证明和卵巢卵泡培养技术的进步为这些研究提供了基础。
