TEHRAN- Researchers at Iranian Biological Resource Center successfully produced two lines of Immortalized Human Granulosa Cells (HGL5) from Normal and polycystic ovaries, announced the organization’s director of Human and Animal Cells bank. 

Granulosa cells are a clump of cells that surround an egg in a developing follicle and ensure that there is an optimum balance of sex hormones in the body to maintain fertility and a potential pregnancy. Following the release of an egg, granulosa cells become the lutein cells of the corpus luteum and start producing progesterone in addition to estrogen.

According to Dr. Parvaneh Farzaneh, the faulty function of granulosa cells is among the leading reasons of infertility, IRNA reported on Sunday. 

“In most studies about the mechanism of releasing eggs in female reproductive system, the IVF granulosa-luteal cells are prepared for culture by removal of erythrocytes,” said Farzaneh adding that the method has many disadvantages including the few number of originated cells, their low survival rate and chance of multiplication.   

“The former granulosa cells lines were not capable of expressing the Follicle-stimulating Hormone Receptor (FSH) or were originated from resources that had chromosome disorders, but the newly produced lines don’t have these problems and can be used in studies about treatment of infertility.” She further explained.

According to WebMD infertility in men and woman can be treated with assisted reproductive technology (ART). There are several types of ART including IUI (intrauterine insemination), IVF (in vitro fertilization) and GIFT (gamete intrafallopian transfer) and ZIFT (zygote intrafallopian transfer).

In December, Deputy Health Minister Qasem Babajani said the prevalence of infertility among Iranian couples nationwide is about 15 percent. 

SJ/MQ