July 6, 2008
Mice produce human sperm to raise hope for infertile men
Jonathan Leake and Sarah-Kate Templeton
Mice have been used to make human sperm for the first time in a
breakthrough that could lead to a treatment for infertile men.
The discovery shows the animals can be used as surrogate sperm
producers for men who cannot produce viable sperm of their own.
The research could, however, prove controversial because it gives a
separate species an intimate role in human reproduction.
"Our data indicate that the mouse can yield human sperm cells," said
Irina Kerkis of the Roger Abdelmassih clinic and research centre in
Sao Paolo, Brazil.
Related Links
How "artificial sperm" could help infertile couples
Infertile men could become fathers
Kerkis, whose earlier fertility research has been published in the
scientific journal, Nature, will outline her findings this week at
the annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and
Embryology in Barcelona.
In an advance summary, Kerkis describes how she and her colleagues
first extracted dental pulp from the tooth of a male donor.
The pulp, found in the soft material in the centre of teeth, is rich
in stem cells. These are the precursors of almost every type of cell
in the body with the power to develop into anything from heart muscle
to brain cells.
Kerkis then isolated the stem cells from the dental pulp and injected
them into the testes of live male mice.
The mice were killed at various intervals after the injection and
their testes examined to see if the stem cells had survived.
Kerkis found the human stem cells had not only settled into the
mouse's testes but had also successfully "differentiated" into cells
that were producing viable sperm.
In practice, once sperm had been extracted from the mouse's testes
they could then be used to fertilise a donated egg. This could then
be transplanted into a prospective mother.
The discovery means that an infertile man could have a baby by giving
up one of his teeth and agreeing to involve a mouse in the process of
reproduction.
About 10-15% of men have a low sperm count, impaired sperm mobility
or are unable to have children, and about 1-2% can produce no sperm
at all.
Currently eggs from cows are being used by British scientists to
create human stem cells that may be used to test drugs or even as
treatments for multiple sclerosis and motor neurone disease.
http://www.timesonl
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StemCells subscribers may also be interested in these sites:
Children's Neurobiological Solutions
http://www.CNSfoundation.org/
Cord Blood Registry
http://www.CordBlood.com/at.cgi?a=150123
The CNS Healing Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CNS_Healing
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