Japanese scientists led by Professor Katsuhiko Hayashi at Kyushu University “have succeeded in creating murine eggs, in a laboratory setting, that led to fertile off-spring following fertilisation”. They achieved this with two techniques – one using murine embryo stem cells and the other using reprogrammed adult skin cells.
The eggs obtained were fertilised and implanted in “surrogate” mice. “Only a small number of embryos led to the birth of normal mice”. The process “is far from being optimised” – it is welcomed with “enthusiasm” by British scientists but with caution by “experts in human reproduction”. The technique “is still far too risky and controversial to be tested in humans”, but it “might prove useful one day to treat infertility”.
AFP (17/10/2016); Jean-Yves Nau (17/10/2016)