Morgan BellSperm grown from stem cells bear live pups
July 14th 2006 09:18
Six live mouse pups were recently born of artificial sperm grown from embryonic stem cells, Cosmos Online reported yesterday. The study reveals promising information about cell development that may one day be used in treating male infertility.
“The findings are incredible in the sense that it may open a door for reproductive therapies that, until now, were science fiction,” reproductive biologist Orly Lacham-Kaplan of the Monash Institute of Reproduction and Development told Cosmos. “It is great proof to all scientists working on this topic that we are [heading in] the right direction.”
“This research is particularly important in helping us to understand more about spermatogenesis, the biological process in which sperm is produced,” said Karim Nayernia, professor of stem cell biology at the University of Newcastle, U.K., who led the study. “We must know this if we are to get to the root of infertility.
“For example, we could isolate a patient’s spermatagonial cells using a simple testicular biopsy, encourage them in the laboratory into becoming functional sperm and transplant them back into the patient.”
While hundreds of mouse eggs were injected with the artificial sperm, only 50 began to develop as embryos. A mere seven of these survived to birth, with one of the pups dying shortly afterwards. None of the remaining six pups lived a full two years - the expected lifespan of a laboratory mouse - they all had truncated lives, dying within five months.
Clearly, more research is needed before the full potential of SSCs can be established, as Nayernia noted.
However, according to medical ethicist Anna Smajdor of the Imperial College London: “Sperm and eggs play a unique role in our understanding of kinship and parenthood, and being able to create these cells in the laboratory will pose a serious conceptual challenge for our society.
“Who is the father of offspring born from laboratory sperm? A collection of stem cells in a petrii dish? The embryo from which the cells were derived?
“The answers to these questions are not clear, but they go to the foundations of our sense of identity.”
Looks like we have some way to go yet, in the way of research, as well as morality.
(image from flickr.com)
“This research is particularly important in helping us to understand more about spermatogenesis, the biological process in which sperm is produced,” said Karim Nayernia, professor of stem cell biology at the University of Newcastle, U.K., who led the study. “We must know this if we are to get to the root of infertility.
“For example, we could isolate a patient’s spermatagonial cells using a simple testicular biopsy, encourage them in the laboratory into becoming functional sperm and transplant them back into the patient.”
While hundreds of mouse eggs were injected with the artificial sperm, only 50 began to develop as embryos. A mere seven of these survived to birth, with one of the pups dying shortly afterwards. None of the remaining six pups lived a full two years - the expected lifespan of a laboratory mouse - they all had truncated lives, dying within five months.
Clearly, more research is needed before the full potential of SSCs can be established, as Nayernia noted.
However, according to medical ethicist Anna Smajdor of the Imperial College London: “Sperm and eggs play a unique role in our understanding of kinship and parenthood, and being able to create these cells in the laboratory will pose a serious conceptual challenge for our society.
“Who is the father of offspring born from laboratory sperm? A collection of stem cells in a petrii dish? The embryo from which the cells were derived?
“The answers to these questions are not clear, but they go to the foundations of our sense of identity.”
Looks like we have some way to go yet, in the way of research, as well as morality.
(image from flickr.com)
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