Frogs Helping Human Infertility

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 5 (HealthDay News) — Studies in immature frog eggs are giving scientists insights into human infertility.

In studies with frog oocytes — immature eggs — a team at Duke University in Durham, N.C., found that the yolk plays an important role in regulating the survival of the eggs. Depleting the yolk triggered programmed cell death (apoptosis) while adding nutrients to the yolk prolonged the life of the frog oocytes.