Female mice lack adult germ-line stem cells but sustain oogenesis using stable primordial follicles

Whether or not mammalian females generate new oocytes during adulthood from germ-line stem cells to sustain the ovarian follicle pool has recently generated controversy.We used a sensitive lineagelabelingsystem to determinewhether stem cells are needed in female adult mice to compensate for follicular losses and to directly identify active germ-line stemcells. Primordial follicles generated during fetal life are highly stable, with a half-life during adulthood of 10mo, and thus are sufficient to sustain adult oogenesis without a source of renewal. Moreover, in normal mice or following germ-cell depletion with Busulfan, only stable, single oocytes are lineage-labeled, rather than cell clusters indicative of newoocyte formation. Even one germline stem cell division per 2 wk would have been detected by our method, based on the kinetics of fetal follicle formation. Thus, adult femalemice neither require nor contain active germ-line stem cells or produce new oocytes in vivo.