Scientists have moved a step closer to creating life in a petri dish – without the use of a man.
Researchers at Harvard Medical School say they’ve succeeded in turning mouse embryonic stem cells into primitive sperm cells, and then used the sperm cells to fertilize eggs.
According to the British journal Nature, George Daley and his colleagues took tail-less precursors of sperm cells, cultured them for a week in a dish of retinoic acid (which caused them to multiply), and ejected them into unfertilized eggs. The eggs developed into embryos.
The technique is being touted as a new tool to help the emerging branch of gene therapy enable fathers in the future to sire children free of genetic flaws.
The scientists did not take their experiment as far as allowing the embryos to develop into live-born mice, but are now studying whether such a feat is possible.
Dr. John Gearhart, a Johns Hopkins University stem-cell researcher, cautioned that it is not clear whether the fertilized mouse eggs would have developed into normal embryos, reports the Associated Press.
The study involved embryonic germ cells, which appear in early embryos and mature into either sperm or egg cells.
Daley said research will allow scientists to study closely the development of germ cells, considered the “master” material being explored as the replacement-organ tissue of the future.
“Germ cells are in some sense the immortal cells of our species. They’re really endowed and given the responsibility for perpetuating the species,” Daley said.
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WND Staff