- Chinese scientists reveal they have discovered a way to have babies without men’s sperm
- Aside from being able to create babies, they claim this breakthrough may pave the way for new treatments for male fertility problems
- Because of this revelation, different reactions from other scientists arise
They say everything is possible in this world because of Science, but to alter the natural course of creation — is it possible?
In a report written by correspondent John Von Radowitz and published by Mirror.co.uk, it said that a team of Chinese scientists claimed they have discovered a method to have babies without men’s sperm.
Published in a medical online journal Cell Stem Cell, they have reported how their experiment was done and its outcome.
Apparently, the scientists made an artificial sperm cell from murine embryonic stem cells (ESC)-derived primordial germ cell like cells (PGCLCs), resulting in the formation of male spermatid-like cells (SLCs) capable of producing viable fertile offspring via intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI).
This has been injected to a mouse egg which resulted to creation of healthy mouse babies.
Murine refers to rodent family which includes house rats and mice.
The Chinese scientists also claims that this milestone can be the start for the treatment of male fertility problems.
According to Dr Jiahao Sha, from Nanjing Medical University, one of the co-authors of the research, “If proven to be safe and effective in humans, our platform could potentially generate fully functional sperm for artificial insemination or in-vitro fertilization techniques.”
Explaining further he said, “Because currently available treatments do not work for many couples, we hope that our approach could substantially improve success rates for male infertility.”
Dr. Sha proudly disclosed, “Our method fully complies with the gold standards recently proposed by a consensus panel of reproductive biologists, so we think that it holds tremendous promise for treating male infertility.”
Comments from other Scientists
UK law does not allow the creation without the use of sperm; however, this did not prevent some scientists to be awed by the result.
They have praised their Chinese counterpart on the big breakthrough but said,”there were still many obstacles to be overcome before sperm-like cells grown in the laboratory could be of use to infertile men.”
A Professor from the Medical Research Council Center for Reproductive Health at University of Edinburgh in the person of Richard Sharpe said, “safety was a major issue.”
Reminding others about some possibility he said, “Bear in mind that if germ cells do not format their DNA correctly, it may not only affect the resulting individual but might also affect the next generation.”
Allan Pacey, Professor of Andrology, University of Sheffield, also shared his thoughts regarding the study as an “interesting step forward”. However, just like Sharpe, he said, “It’s important to note that the sperm-like cells produced in the study were not fully mature sperm as we might know them.”
Commenting on the possible help it can bring to male infertility, he said, “In spite of these encouraging results, we are still some way from immediately applying this technique as a potential cure for human male infertility.”
Adding to it he said, “It remains to be seen if this technique could be applied in humans to create sperm-like cells that might be usable in IVF.”
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