First Step to Making Human Eggs and Sperms in a Lab

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Science

Thursday, 29 October 2009 10:07

AN astonishing scientific breakthrough could make it possible for would-be parents who are both infertile to have children. The first step has been taken towards making both sperm and eggs in the laboratory. For the first time embryonic stem cells have been turned successfully into sex cells. The breakthrough means that scientists are on the road towards making sperm and eggs out of cells taken from previously infertile couples.

The study, published in Nature, reveals that scientists have worked out which cocktail of chemicals is needed to turn stem cells into immature sperm and egg cells – called germ cells.

Some of the male germ cells got as far as producing tails and experts believe they could have fertilised an egg.

At this stage the team hope only that creating these early sex cells in a lab will help them to study and understand what goes wrong in people who are infertile.

Reproductive capability develops within the first few weeks of life and it is at this early stage that experts believe things go wrong which lead to infertility in adult life.

But because it happens in the first weeks of embryonic life, it is very hard to study. Recreating this in the lab means scientists will at last be able to take a closer look.

Professor Renee Reijo Pera, from the University of Stanford in California, one of the senior authors of the research, said: “Ten to 15 per cent of couples are infertile. About half of these cases are due to an inability to make eggs or sperm.

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“Figuring out the genetic recipe needed to develop human germ cells in the laboratory will give us the tools we need to trace what’s going wrong for these people.”

Yesterday Darren Griffin, Professor of Genetics at the University of Kent, said: “Only through understanding such factors at a basic scientific level can we hope to develop novel diagnoses and therapies. The potential is enormous.”

Dr Allan Pacey, Sheffield University senior lecturer on male inability to father children, said: “Ultimately this may help us find a cure for male infertility. Not necessarily by making sperm in the laboratory – I personally think that it is unlikely – but by identifying new targets for drugs or genes that may stimulate sperm production to occur naturally.

“This is a long way off, but it is a laudable dream.”

 

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