German researchers say they’ve found a way to create early-stage sperm cells from human bone marrow.
The findings will help researchers understand more about how sperm cells are created, the report said. If researchers succeeded in turning the primitive sperm cells into mature sperm, it could provide new and better treatments for infertility.
Professor Karim Nayernia, from the University of Gottingen, in Germany took bone marrow from male volunteers and isolated stem cells known as mesenchymal stem cells. Stem cells are immature cells that can be developed into different types of tissue.
Prof Nayernia’s team mixed these cells with proteins that promote cell growth and vitamin A, which appears to play an important role in sperm development. This mixture converted the cells into sperm stem cells, called spermatogonium cells.
Prof Nayernia said that sperm cells derived from the bone stem cells of mice can undergo the first two of three divisions necessary to become mature sperm capable of fertilizing eggs. He said that we would work to achieve all the necessary divisions in mice before trying similar manipulations with human cells.
German scientists said fully-functioning sperm cells could be manufactured within five years to use in in-vitro fertilisation.
Few experts, however, cautioned that turning sperm stem cells derived from bone marrow into functioning sperm would be extremely challenging, so it is premature to talk about a new form of infertility treatment.
The research is published today in the academic journal Reproduction: Gamete Biology.
Via : BBC NEWS
