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In a first step towards creating artificial sperm cells, researchers have turned human bone marrow tissue into primitive sperm cells.
If these precursor cells can be coaxed into becoming fully functioning sperm cells, the technique could allow infertile men to father their own children, and even allow women to produce their own sperm. But experts caution that provoking the sperm precursors to fully mature presents a serious challenge.
In July 2006, biologist Karim Nayernia at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the UK, and colleagues reported they had successfully converted stem cells from mouse embryos into functioning sperm that could fertilise mouse eggs and produce live offspring.
Nayernia says trying this approach in humans would spark controversy as it would involve creating embryonic clones of infertile men: "If we used this method in the clinic, it would raise ethical concerns." He believes his latest advance, which instead used stem cells taken from bone marrow, would present fewer ethical problems.
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Nayernia's team obtained the bone marrow stem cells, called mesenchymal stem cells, from four adult men who were about to...