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No men OR women needed: Scientists create sperm and eggs from stem cells
Human eggs and sperm have been grown in the laboratory in research which
could change the face of parenthood.
It paves the way for a cure for infertility and could help those left sterile
by cancer treatment to have children who are biologically their own.
But it raises a number of moral and ethical concerns. These include the
possibility of children being
Opponents argue that it is wrong to meddle with the building blocks of life
and warn that the advances taking place to tackle infertility risk distorting
and damaging relations between family members.
The U.S. government-funded research also offers the prospect of a 'miracle pill'
which staves off the menopause, allowing women to wait longer to have a child.
It centres on stem cells, widely seen as a repair kit for the body.
Scientists at Stanford University in California
The sperm had heads and short tails and are thought to have been mature enough
to fertilise an egg.
The eggs
The American team used stem cells taken from embryos in the first days of
life but
hope to repeat the process with slivers of skin.
The skin cells would first be exposed to a mixture which wound back their
biological clocks to embryonic stem cell state, before being transformed into
sperm or eggs.
Starting with a person's own skin would also mean the lab-grown sperm or eggs
would not be rejected by the body.
The science also raises the possibility of 'male eggs' made from men's skin and
'female sperm' from women's skin.
This would allow gay couples to have children genetically their own, although
many scientists are sceptical about whether it is possible to create sperm from
female cells, which lack the male Y chromosome.
The U.S. breakthrough could unlock many of the secrets of egg and sperm
production, leading to new drug treatments for infertility.
Defects in sperm and egg development are the biggest cause of infertility but,
because many of the key stages occur in the womb, scientists have struggled to
study the process in detail.
Researcher Rita Reijo Pera, of Stanford's Centre for Human Embryonic Stem Cell
Research, believes new fertility drugs are just five years away.
However, safety and ethical concerns mean that artificial sperm and eggs are
much further away from use.
Dr Reijo Pera said any future use of artificial eggs and sperm would have to be
subject to guidelines.
Read article here:
Scientists create sperm and eggs from stem cells
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