Lab Grown Human Eggs: Ultimate Fertility Treatment?

Besides a mere cutting edge laboratory curiosity, are laboratory grown human eggs the ultimate way to treat infertility caused by childhood cancers?

By: Ringo Bones 

As the latest cutting edge laboratory curiosity a research team at the University of Edinburgh have for the very first time been able to successfully grow human eggs in the laboratory. The purpose of the research was originally to explore how human eggs develop into maturity, which until recently, much of it is still a mystery to science. And after the team at the University of Edinburgh had successfully done it, the team says that the technique could lead ways of preserving the fertility of children having cancer treatment.  

Women are born with immature eggs in their ovaries that can develop fully only after puberty and given that aggressive chemotherapy and radioactive isotope therapy can destroy all of the egg cells and future ability for the ovaries to produce viable eggs capable of being fertilized. Women can freeze mature eggs or even embryos if they are fertilized with a partner’s sperm, before starting the chemotherapy and radioisotope therapy treatment – but this method is not possible for very young girls with childhood cancers. 

It took decades of work, but scientists can now grow human eggs to maturity outside of the ovary. It requires carefully controlling laboratory conditions including oxygen levels, hormones, proteins that stimulate growth and the medium in which the eggs are cultured. But while the scientists have shown it is possible, the approach published in the journal Molecular Human Reproduction still needs refinement. It is very inefficient with only 10-percent of the eggs completing their journey to maturity. And the eggs have not been fertilized, so it is uncertain how viable they are. 

One of the University of Edinburgh researchers, Prof. Evelyn Telfer, told the BBC “It’s very exciting to obtain proof of principle that it’s possible to reach this stage in human tissue. But that has to be tempered by the whole lot of work needed to improve the culture conditions and test the quality of the oocytes (eggs). But apart from any clinical applications, this is a big breakthrough in improving understanding of human egg development.” The process is very tightly controlled and timed in the human body – some eggs will mature during the teen years, others more than two decades later. 

Does Asparagus Really Cause Cancer?

Even though the study published in the journal Nature still needs further trials, does a chemical compound found in asparagus really causes cancer?

By: Ringo Bones 

The internet was set alight a few days ago after a study published in the journal Nature pointing that a chemical compound found in asparagus might be responsible in the spread of breast cancer tumors. Fortunately, there are still caveats concerning the study. For one thing the research was done only on mice and hasn’t been performed in humans yet. Which points to that old lab researcher adage that mice are not people and scientists know well ever since lab researches began that animal models don’t always mimic the way certain diseases work in human bodies. Part of the study’s results point to asparagine – the chemical compound found in asparagus – wasn’t found to cause cancer even in the mice studied. The compound merely made triple-negative breast cancer spread more quickly around the tiny rodent’s bodies. 

The truth is asparagine is a chemical compound that is truly all around us – asparagine is an amino acid that is naturally synthesized naturally in our bodies. It is also present in protein rich foods like dairy, beef, poultry, eggs, fish and other seafood. The amino acid compound is also present in potatoes, nuts, legumes, seeds, soy and whole grains. Levels of asparagine are pretty low in most fruits and vegetables, however, with the notable exception with the vegetable asparagus. 

At present, scientists don’t know yet precisely how consuming the compound influences production of it in the body. But figuring out the best ways to slow our bodies’ internal production of asparagine – via drugs or dietary interventions – could unlock new secrets to stopping the spread of cancer in our bodies. The researchers also think that it is possible that a leukemia chemotherapy drug called L-asparaginase may have the potential to slow the spread of breast cancer around the body. When scientists gave the mice the asparagine- stopping drug, which blocks production of the amino acid, it reduced the breast cancer’s ability to spread to other parts of the rodent’s bodies. Lead study author and Cambridge University cancer researcher Greg Hannon said in a statement: “When the availability of asparagine was reduced, we saw little impact on the primary tumor in the breast, but tumor cells had reduced capacity for metastases in other parts of the body.” Looks like asparagine bioavailability is the main governing model of metastasis of breast tumors.