杏吧原创

MOUSE eggs matured in rats have produced live mouse pups. The method could be used to protect endangered species.

Shae-Lee Cox and her colleagues at Monash University in Melbourne took ovaries from young mice and put them under the kidney capsules of 鈥渘ude鈥� rats, which have a weakened immune system and so are less likely to reject transplanted tissue. Three weeks later the mature eggs were collected and fertilised with mouse sperm. The resulting embryos were implanted into surrogate mother mice, and 9 per cent of them became live pups (Science, vol 297, p 2227).

鈥淚t has instant implications for the preservation of endangered species,鈥� says Debra Gook, an expert in infertility technology at the Royal Women鈥檚 Hospital in Melbourne.

The Monash researchers plan to use the technique to grow eggs from endangered species such as the northern hairy-nosed wombat.