Scientists to apply for licence to fertilise human eggs grown in laboratory

SCOTTISH scientists are set to revolutionise fertility treatment following the development of a new technique that could lead to a reversal of the menopause in older women.

The team are shortly to request a licence from the UK fertility watchdog to fertilise the first human eggs that have been grown entirely in the laboratory from stem cells as part of a plan to generate an unlimited supply. The scientific breakthrough could not only assist infertile women to conceive but could potentially make older women more fertile.

The production of human eggs from stem cells could also mean that the ovaries of older women could be refilled to prevent the health problems triggered by the menopause, such as osteoporosis and increased risk of heart disease.

The researchers at Edinburgh University have teamed up with Harvard Medical School in Boston in the United States to become the first in the world to produce mature human eggs from stem cells which have been isolated from human ovarian tissue.

Within the next few weeks, Evelyn Telfer, a biologist at the university, will submit a formal licence to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) for permission to fertilise the lab-grown egg cells with human sperm to prove that they are capable of growing normally.

The resulting embryos will be studied for 14 days, which is the legal limit, after which they will be frozen or destroyed.

The idea of generating an unlimited supply of human eggs, and subsequently the possibility of rolling back the menopause, is the result of the pioneering work of Professor Jonathan Tilly at Harvard. It had been long believed that women are born with their full complement of egg cells, which are gradually depleted until they run out at menopause. However, Tilly has published research showing that stem cells exist in human ovaries and that it is possible for them to be stimulated in the lab to grow into immature egg cells.

He is collaborating with Telfer in Scotland because she has developed a technique for growing immature egg cells to the “fully ripened” stage where they could be fertilised.

Yesterday, Telfer confirmed that she hoped to apply soon for permission to fertilise the eggs grown within the IVF unit at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. “We have all the local ethical approval in place and we’re now looking at the process of the HFEA application,” she said.

The first clinical application of the extra egg supply would most likely be to help young cancer patients who have lost their natural eggs as a result of their treatment.

“That would be the biggest application,” Telfer said. “This would allow us to provide eggs for fertility preservation.

“The menopause [element] would really be related to perhaps using these cells to reinvest the women’s ovaries, but that is a lot more speculative and a lot more difficult to say how it would work.”