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The potential clinical use of OSCs
If OSCs can be definitively identified and better understood, then it is proposed that manipulation of these cells could present a novel treatment method for Premature Ovarian Insufficiency (POI), female infertility, and post-menopausal health conditions [1]. This would rely on successful identification, removal, cryopreservation, and re-injection of OSCs and such a protocol currently only exists in theory.

Removal and cryopreservation of OSCs from female patients prior to ovotoxic treatments such as chemotherapy, and subsequent replacement into the patient’s ovary, has been proposed as a way to allow women to produce their own oocytes and conceive their own child after follicle-depleting treatment [3].

Re-injection of OSCs into the ovary following menopause may restore the population of hormone secreting oocytes, restoring endocrine function in the ovary and resulting in reversal of the unpleasant symptoms of menopause [2].

Removal and preservation of OSCs in advance of anticipated POI, followed by re-injection when the patient desires pregnancy may be a future fertility treatment for women suffering from POI [4].

Ultimately, until OSCs have been irrevocably characterised, and a more developed understanding of the ovarian environment has been achieved, these treatments remain hypothetical.