Human skin cells may one day be used to create functional human eggs in a step toward helping women have their own genetic children when their natural eggs are dysfunctional, according to very early lab experiments reported in a scientific journal.

The process, which would carry significant safety concerns, involves removing the nucleus from a woman's skin cell and inserting it into an egg, or oocyte, from which the nucleus has been removed, scientists detailed in Nature Communications on Tuesday.

Doctors are seeing increasing numbers of people who cannot use their own eggs, often because of age or medical conditions, reproductive medicine specialist Ying Cheong of the UK's University of Southampton, who was not involved in the research, said in a statement.

"While this is still very

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