Ovulated egg cells, or oocytes, in adult female mice are not formed from germ cells in the blood or bone marrow. That’s the conclusion of a new study led by investigators at Joslin Diabetes Center and Harvard University. These findings refute a controversial recent study conducted at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), which itself contradicted the long-held belief that female mammals are born with a finite number of oocytes that cannot be replenished or regenerated if lost to injury or disease by suggesting that transplanted bone marrow or peripheral blood cells were capable of generating new oocytes in the ovaries of recipient mice.
