CURRENT STATUS OF GERMLINE STEM CELLS IN ADULT MAMMALIAN OVARY

Abstract

The evolutionary and biological mechanisms underlying female reproductive aging have long been a matter of interest. Reproductive biologists have tackled with the relatively limited fertile period in female lifespan compared to male fertility that continues until the late ages. For more than five decades, it has been believed that females are born with a fixed number of germ cells that constitute ovarian follicle reserve and depletion of this reserve causes menopause. However, researchers recently reported findings that support the presence of oogenesis in postnatal mammalian ovaries, which caused a paradigm shift in our current knowledge of reproductive biology. In this minireview, we provide a brief history of one of the central dogmas in reproductive biology and subsequently present recent studies on the existence of germline stem cells in the mammalian ovary.

Keywords

• Ovary,fertility preservation,stem cells,female germline

Abstract

Dişi üreme sistemi yaşlanmasının altında yatan evrimsel ve biyolojik mekanizmalar uzun süredir ilgi çeken bir konu olmuştur. Üreme biyolojisi konusunda çalışan biyologlar, erkeklerde ileri yaşlara kadar devam eden fertilite ile karşılaştırıldığında dişi yaşamında görece olarak sınırlı bir dönemde görülen fertilite konusunu aydınlığa kavuşturmaya çalışmaktadırlar. 50 yılı aşkın bir süredir dişilerin ovaryan folikül rezervini oluşturan sabit sayıda germ hücresi ile dünyaya geldiklerine inanılmaktadır. Ancak, son dönemde araştırıcılar memeli ovaryumlarında doğum sonrası oogenez varlığını destekleyen ve üreme biyolojisi ile ilgili günümüz bilgilerimizde değişime yol açan bulgular elde etmişlerdir. Bu derleme çalışmasında, üreme biyolojisindeki santral dogmalardan bir tanesi ile ilgili kısa bir tarihsel bilgi verilmiş ve memeli ovaryumlarında germ hattı kök hücrelerinin varlığı ile ilgili son dönem çalışmaları sunulmuştur.

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