Female mice lack adult germ-line stem cells but sustain oogenesis using stable primordial follicles.

Whether or not mammalian females generate new oocytes during adulthood from germ-line stem cells to sustain the ovarian follicle pool has recently generated controversy. We used a sensitive lineage-labeling system to determine whether stem cells are needed in female adult mice to compensate for follicular losses and to directly identify active germ-line stem cells. Primordial follicles generated during fetal life are highly stable, with a half-life during adulthood of 10 mo, and thus are sufficient to sustain adult oogenesis without a source of renewal. Moreover, in normal mice or following germ-cell depletion with Busulfan, only stable, single oocytes are lineage-labeled, rather than cell clusters indicative of new oocyte formation. Even one germ-line stem cell division per 2 wk would have been detected by our method, based on the kinetics of fetal follicle formation. Thus, adult female mice neither require nor contain active germ-line stem cells or produce new oocytes in vivo.

Citation

Lei Lei, Allan C Spradling. Female mice lack adult germ-line stem cells but sustain oogenesis using stable primordial follicles. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 2013 May 21;110(21):8585-90

Mesh Tags

PMID: 23630252

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