title: Primordial Germ Cells: Current Knowledge and Perspectives.
abstract: Infertility is a condition that occurs very frequently and understanding what defines normal fertility is crucial to helping patients. Causes of infertility are numerous and the treatment often does not lead to desired pregnancy especially when there is a lack of functional gametes. In humans, the primordial germ cell (PGC) is the primary undifferentiated stem cell type that will differentiate towards gametes: spermatozoa or oocytes. With the development of stem cell biology and differentiation protocols, PGC can be obtained from pluripotent stem cells providing a new therapeutic possibility to treat infertile couples. Recent studies demonstrated that viable mouse pups could be obtained from in vitro differentiated stem cells suggesting that translation of these results to human is closer. Therefore, the aim of this review is to summarize current knowledge about PGC indicating the perspective of their use in both research and medical application for the treatment of infertility.
authors.affiliation: Center for Molecular Medicine and Stem Cell Research, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Kragujevac, 69 Svetozara Markovica Street, 34000 Kragujevac, Serbia.
authors.forename: Aleksandar
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nikolic
authors.affiliation: Center for Molecular Medicine and Stem Cell Research, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Kragujevac, 69 Svetozara Markovica Street, 34000 Kragujevac, Serbia.
authors.forename: Vladislav
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Volarevic
authors.affiliation: Institute of Genetic Medicine, Newcastle University, The International Centre for Life, Central Parkway, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 3BZ, UK.
authors.forename: Lyle
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Armstrong
authors.affiliation: Institute of Genetic Medicine, Newcastle University, The International Centre for Life, Central Parkway, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 3BZ, UK.
authors.forename: Majlinda
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lako
authors.affiliation: Center for Molecular Medicine and Stem Cell Research, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Kragujevac, 69 Svetozara Markovica Street, 34000 Kragujevac, Serbia ; Spebo Medical, Norvezanska 16, 16 000 Leskovac, Serbia.
authors.forename: Miodrag
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Stojkovic