title: Female mice lack adult germ-line stem cells but sustain oogenesis using stable primordial follicles.
abstract: 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.
authors: Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research Laboratories, Department of Embryology, Carnegie Institution for Science, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA.
authors: Lei
authors: L
authors: Lei
authors: Allan C
authors: AC
authors: Spradling
mesh_terms: D053687:Adult Stem Cells; D000818:Animals; D002455:Cell Division / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D051379:Mice; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D009865:Oocytes / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D009866:Oogenesis / Q000502:physiology*; D006080:Ovarian Follicle / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*
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