A team of researchers has achieved a world's first by using induced pluripotent stem cells from a mouse tail to produce a large number of eggs in vitro, according to a study published in the British science journal Nature.
Until now, mouse iPS cells had to be transplanted to a different mouse ovary for eggs to become capable of fertilization, but the team, consisting of researchers from Kyushu University, Kyoto University and other institutions, achieved the process using only cultures.
Further improving the technology could within several years open up the possibility of producing human eggs from iPS cells, said Kyushu University professor Katsuhiko Hayashi, one of the researchers.