Published online May 26, 2015. doi: 10.4252/wjsc.v7.i4.757
Peer-review started: July 29, 2014
First decision: November 27, 2014
Revised: January 28, 2015
Accepted: March 16, 2015
Article in press: March 18, 2015
Published online: May 26, 2015
Processing time: 306 Days and 16.2 Hours
The field of reproductive biology has undergone significant developments in the last decade. The notion that there is a fixed reserve pool of oocytes before birth was established by Zuckerman in 1951. However, in 2004, an article published in nature challenged this central dogma of mammalian reproductive biology. Tilly’s group reported the existence of ovarian germline stem cells (GSCs) in postnatal ovaries of mice and suggested that the bone marrow could be an extragonadal source of ovarian GSCs. These findings were strongly criticized; however, several independent groups have since successfully isolated and characterized ovarian GSCs in postnatal mice. The ovarian GSCs are located in the ovarian surface epithelium and express markers of undifferentiated GSCs. When transplanted into mouse ovaries, mouse ovarian GSCs could differentiate and produce embryos and offspring. Similarly, in a recent study, ovarian GSCs were found to be present in the ovaries of women of reproductive age. Conversely, there is increasing evidence that stem cells responsible for maintaining a healthy state in normal tissue may be a source of some cancers, including ovarian cancer. Cancer stem cells (CSCs) have been found in many tissues, including ovaries. Some researchers have suggested that ovarian cancer may be a result of the transformation and dysfunction of ovarian GSCs with self-renewal properties. Drug resistant and metastasis-generating CSCs are responsible for many important problems affecting ovarian cancer patients. Therefore, the identification of CSCs will provide opportunities for the development of new therapeutic strategies for treatments for infertility and ovarian cancer. In this article, we summarize the current understanding of ovarian GSCs in adult mammals, and we also discuss whether there is a relationship between GSCs and CSCs.
Core tip: This review provides an overview on postnatal ovarian germinal stem cells (GSC) of mammals. The characteristics of these cells and the last developments in the field of oogenesis have been presented. We also discuss the relationship between ovarian GSCs and ovarian cancer stem cells. The identification and characterization of these two types of cells are essential for a better understanding of tumor initiation, progression and treatment.