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Stem Cell Protocols pp 203–229Cite as

Isolation and Characterization of Stem Cells in the Adult Mammalian Ovary

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Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 1235))

Abstract

Female mammals are born with a fixed pool of germ cells, which does not replenish during adult life. However, this has been recently challenged and adult ovaries produce oocytes throughout adult life just like sperm in the testes. Evidence is accumulating on the presence of ovarian stem cells, but the need for robust protocols to isolate, identify, further characterize, and subject them to various functionality tests is essential. Knowledge about the function and potential of ovarian stem cells is well demonstrated by various groups, but their true identity remains elusive because of the variability in the approaches used to identify them by different groups. In order to address this we have made attempts to compile our protocols to isolate, identify, characterize, and culture the stem cells using different animal models including human. Two distinct populations of stem cells exist in adult mammalian ovary, including very small embryonic-like stem cells (VSELs) and the progenitors termed ovarian germ stem cells (OGSCs). VSELs are relatively quiescent and undergo asymmetric cell division to give rise to OGSCs, which divide rapidly, occasionally form germ cell nests and undergo meiosis and differentiation into oocytes, which are surrounded by granulosa cells to assemble as primordial follicles.

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Acknowledgements

Study was financially supported by Institute core support provided by Indian Council for Medical Research, Government of India, New Delhi. Research fellowship of SP from CSIR and KS from DST, Government of India, New Delhi, India are acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Stem Cell Biology Department, National Institute for Research and Reproductive Health (ICMR), Jehangir Merwanji Street, Parel, Mumbai, 400 012, India

    Seema Parte, Hiren Patel, Kalpana Sriraman & Deepa Bhartiya

Authors
  1. Seema Parte
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  2. Hiren Patel
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  3. Kalpana Sriraman
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  4. Deepa Bhartiya
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Deepa Bhartiya .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. HemoGenix, Inc., Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA

    Ivan N. Rich

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Parte, S., Patel, H., Sriraman, K., Bhartiya, D. (2015). Isolation and Characterization of Stem Cells in the Adult Mammalian Ovary. In: Rich, I. (eds) Stem Cell Protocols. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1235. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-1785-3_16

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-1785-3_16

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  • Publisher Name: Humana Press, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-1784-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-1785-3

  • eBook Packages: Springer Protocols

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