A recent study in infertile mice has successfully created working sperm cells from stem cells and has allowed the mice to then go on and give birth to fertile pups.
The research, which was carried out by a team in Japan, has been hailed as ‘hugely exciting’ by fertility experts.
The researchers in Kyoto were able to take stem cells from mouse embryos and use them to grow primordial germ cells (PGCs). When these cells were injected into the infertile mouse, they were able to develop into normal sperm cells and were successfully used to fertilise eggs.
The fertilized eggs were transplanted into the female mouse and led to a successful birth. The offspring were also shown to be healthy and fertile.
The research team has suggested that it may be possible to use the same procedure in humans using stem cells which are created from adult skin cells.
Dr Allan Pacey, from the University of Sheffield, said: “This has huge implications for furthering our understanding of how sperm are made, but may also one day lead to a clinical application whereby we could make sperm for infertile men.” He added that most previous attempts to create sperm cells from embryonic stem cells have been unsuccessful. These attempts have often led to offspring which were unhealthy and died early. He has said that whilst this recent study is a big step forward, much more research needs to be done to refine the process before it can be used in humans.