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Jackie
Veteran Poster
Username: Jackie
Post Number: 559
Registered: 04-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, April 14, 2007 - 09:04 pm: | 
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Women may make their own sperm
Email Print Normal font Large font Deborah Smith, Science Editor
April 14, 2007
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AdvertisementTHE possibility of men - and women - growing their own sperm in the laboratory has moved a step closer, as scientists have converted human bone marrow tissue into immature sperm cells for the first time.
The research is aimed at overcoming infertility in men but may eventually allow two women to have their own biological daughter.
A team led by Karim Nayernia, of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in Britain, took bone marrow from male volunteers and isolated adult stem cells called mesenchymal stem cells, which can turn into a variety of tissues including muscles.
The researchers grew them in a culture containing vitamin A and coaxed them into becoming immature sperm cells known as spermatogonial stem cells.
"Our next goal is to see if we can get the spermatogonial stem cells to progress to mature sperm in the laboratory," Professor Nayernia said in a statement.
"We're very excited about this discovery, particularly as our earlier work in mice suggests that we could develop this work even further."
Last year his team succeeded in converting embryonic stem cells from mice into sperm that were used to produce seven mice pups, six of which lived into adulthood.
Professor Nayernia, who carried out both studies while at the University of Gottingen in Germany, said he expected it would take another three to five years of experiments to obtain fully developed human sperm.
He said he hoped the research, published in the journal Reproduction: Gamete Biology, would lead to new infertility treatments, particularly for young men made sterile by cancer therapy. It might also be possible for women to produce sperm this way, he told reporters in Britain.
An Australian researcher, Orly Lacham-Kaplan, said that if the findings were confirmed it was a fascinating development.
"It's the start of something that is going to be really incredible, but there is a huge amount of work to be done," Dr Lacham-Kaplan said. But she said it was not known yet if human sperm could be matured in the lab and, if so, whether it would be healthy and able to fertilise an egg.
She said that although Professor Nayernia's research did not involve embryos or embryonic stem cells, it was bound to be controversial. "Anything to do with human reproduction raises ethical issues," she said.
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Jackie
Veteran Poster
Username: Jackie
Post Number: 560
Registered: 04-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, April 14, 2007 - 09:10 pm: |
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Maybe women were producing their own sperm 2000 years ago... meaning "so called immaculate conception" ??Hmmmm....lol. |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 8291
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, April 14, 2007 - 09:31 pm: |
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Jeeeeeeeeesus Christ! snicker |
Ntfs_encryption
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Ntfs_encryption
Post Number: 2071
Registered: 10-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, April 14, 2007 - 09:36 pm: |
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Wow! Sounds very possible. I beleive it. Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! |
Mzuri
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Mzuri
Post Number: 4515
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: 
Votes: 2 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, April 14, 2007 - 10:25 pm: |
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Sounds interesting but I'd rather get pregnant the old fashioned way. It's much more fun that way, and it feels good too  |
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