Lab-grown eggs for fertility treatment

Scientists have grown egg cells, which were removed from ovary tissue at their earliest stage of development, to the point at which they are ready to be fertilised. The advance could safeguard the fertility of girls with cancer ahead of potentially harmful medical treatment, such as chemotherapy. Immature eggs recovered from patients' ovarian tissue could be matured in the lab and stored for later fertilisation.

Conventionally, cancer patients can have a piece of ovary removed before treatment, but reimplanting this tissue can risk reintroducing cancer. The study has also given insight into how human eggs develop at various stages, which could aid research into other infertility treatments and regenerative medicine. Scientists and medical experts worked together to develop suitable substances in which eggs could be grown - known as culture mediums - to support each stage of cell development. Their findings, using tissue donated by women who were undergoing routine surgery, build on 30 years of research.

In previous studies, scientists had developed mouse eggs to produce live offspring, and had matured human eggs from a relatively late stage of development. The latest study is the first time a human egg has been developed in the lab from its earliest stage to full maturity. Step one: very small, immature human eggs within ovarian tissue are placed in culture in the lab, and begin to develop Step two: after initial development, eggs have grown and are more than double their initial size.

 The ovarian follicles that contain the eggs are separated before further growth and monitoring Step three: eggs and their surrounding cells are removed from liquid culture to undergo further development in a nutrient-rich membrane. Step four: well-developed, mature eggs are ready for fertilisation. Being able to fully develop human eggs in the lab could widen the scope of available fertility treatments.
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Egg cells can remain fresh with epigenetics

Keeping egg cells in stasis during childhood is a key part of female fertility. A team led by Dr Gavin Kelsey in the Babraham Institute and colleagues in Dresden and Munich studied a protein called MLL2 and discovered how it produces a distinctive pattern of epigenetic marks that are needed for egg cell stasis. A fertilised egg cell is the start of every human life. Yet, egg cells are created inside a woman's body before she is birth.

The eggs are then kept in stasis throughout childhood until they're needed as an adult. If egg cells don't go into stasis they can't become mature eggs and they will never have the chance to form a new life. Putting an egg cell into stasis involves adding many epigenetic marks throughout its DNA.
Epigenetic marks attached to DNA act as footnotes, indicating which genes are turned 'on' or 'off'.  The team had to create new, highly sensitive ways to detect epigenetic marks in such small numbers of cells.

As eggs develop, a mark called H3K4me3 spreads throughout the genome. Scientists have already seen the same mark close to the start of active genes in many cells, but the team discovered that its role in egg cells is different. They showed that the MLL2 protein is responsible for this unusual placement of H3K4me3 in egg cells.

Without MLL2, most H3K4me3 marks in egg cells are lost and the cells die before getting the chance to form a new life. H3K4me3 is created in two ways. MLL2 can add the H3K4me3 mark without any nearby gene activity while another process, that doesn't use MLL2, places the same mark around active genes .
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Moderate drinking of red wine reserves ovaries

Moderate drinking of red wine can increase the chance of conceiving, there is a link between drinking of red wine and healthy ovaries that produce more eggs. Researchers studied different women of reproductive age and measured their antral follicle count- ovarian reserve.

Antral follicle count AFC is the standard way of assessing a woman’s fertility. This is the ovaries’ capacity to make healthy egg cells, which is measured by counting the antral follicles that produce them.

Women who drank moderate amounts of red wine were found to have the highest ovarian reserve. Red wine intake is associated with ovarian reserve as measured by AFC. Anti-inflammatory compound- resveratrol in red wine may be responsible for this.

Drinking small amount of red wine might reserve ovaries. Apart from red wine, healthy lifestyle and eating of balanced diet especially plant based protein can increase the chance of conceiving.
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Children of older women may develop cancer

Increase in chromosomal mutations as we get older may increase the risk of giving birth to children that will develop cancer, acute lymphoblastic leukemia and non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Increasing chromosomal aberrations with older parental may cause stillbirth or a baby with conditions like autism and Down’s syndrome.

A chromosome mutation is an unpredictable change that occurs in a
chromosome. This change is caused by problems that occur during cell division process.

Increasing new mutations that happens in sperm or egg cells are associated with the parents age. These increases the risk of birth defects related to single gene mutations and neurodevelopmental disorders.

Older parents can reduce the risk by embracing healthy lifestyle, reducing alcohol intake, avoiding smoking and chemical exposure.
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