Primary Ovarian Insufficiency (POI) is one of the main diseases causing female infertility
that occurs in about 1% of women between 30-40 years of age. There are few effective methods for
the treatment of women with POI. In the past few years, stem cell-based therapy as one of the most
highly investigated new therapies has emerged as a promising strategy for the treatment of POI. Human
pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) can self-renew indefinitely and differentiate into any type of cell.
Human Embryonic Stem Cells (hESCs) as a type of pluripotent stem cells are the most powerful candidate
for the treatment of POI. Human-induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (hiPSCs) are derived from
adult somatic cells by the treatment with exogenous defined factors to create an embryonic-like pluripotent
state. Both hiPSCs and hESCs can proliferate and give rise to ectodermal, mesodermal, endodermal,
and germ cell lineages. After ovarian stimulation, the number of available oocytes is limited
and the yield of total oocytes with high quality is low. Therefore, a robust and reproducible in-vitro
culture system that supports the differentiation of human oocytes from PSCs is necessary. Very few
studies have focused on the derivation of oocyte-like cells from hiPSCs and the details of hPSCs differentiation
into oocytes have not been fully investigated. Therefore, in this review, we focus on the
differentiation potential of hPSCs into human oocyte-like cells.
Differentiation protocol for generating functional pancreatic β cells from human pluripotent stem cells
