Sperm cells made from skin tissue offer hope for infertile men
Hope for infertile men as US researchers make stunning breakthrough in quest for new way to treat the 20pc unable to father children
Scientists have turned skin tissue from infertile men into early-stage sperm cells in a groundbreaking study that raises hopes for new therapies for the condition.
The unexpected success of the procedure has stunned some scientists, because it was thought to be impossible for the men to make any sperm.
The men who took part in the study had major genetic defects in their Y sex chromosomes, which meant they could not produce healthy adult sperm on their own.
About 1 per cent of men cannot make any sperm, a condition known as azoospermia, while a fifth of men have low sperm counts. Male fertility is a concern for roughly half of couples who seek IVF treatment.
In the latest study, researchers took skin cells from three infertile men and converted them into stem cells, which can grow into almost any tissue in the body. When these cells were transplanted into the testes of mice, they developed into early-stage human sperm cells.
"What we found was that cells from men who did not possess sperm at the time of clinical observation were able to produce the precursors for sperm," said Cyril Ramathal of Stanford University in the United States.
Skin cells from infertile men grew into fewer early-stage sperm cells than cells taken from normally fertile men, the study found.