No need for men to provide sperm anymore?

For those species that rely on sexual reproduction, including mice and humans, offspring can only be produced when the male's sperm is fertilized with the female's egg

Pluripotent stem cells allow scientists to study how every cell in the human body is formed

Among all cell types, germ cells are unique

In addition, they are the only cells that parents actually pass on to their offspring.

Although more research is needed, scientists have made significant progress in using pluripotent stem cells to make sperm cells, at least for mice

Spermatogenous cells are cells that allow men to produce sperm throughout their lives, but this second stage proved to be the most difficult to recreate in the laboratory

This is difficult, but not impossible

She said: "The rate of sperm differentiation is about one week slower than that in mice, and the contribution of spermatogonia stem cells to spermatogenesis is also very low

Starting with mouse pluripotent stem cells, she and her colleagues prepared primordial germ cells and used what they called the "new testis reconstruction method" to examine more than 10,000 cells under 8 different conditions

In order to verify the optimal conditions for the production of spermatogonia, they confirmed that these cells have several characteristics in common with the cells in the mouse testis, including the expression of key genes, epigenetics, and transient upregulation of retrotransposons , Saitou was particularly unexpected

"Retrotransposon control is recaptured

Similarly, epigenetics is also crucial

In order to confirm that the spermatogonial stem cells behave the same as those produced in the body, the researchers injected laboratory-made spermatogonial stem cells into the testis of mice, allowing these cells to develop into sperm cells

These findings provide the most comprehensive reconstruction of male germ cell development starting from pluripotent stem cells

"This is the first study to use mouse pluripotent stem cells to reconstruct functional sperm in test tubes
.
This opens up new possibilities for male germ cell differentiation
.
"

(Biocom)

Original search:

In Vitro Reconstitution of the Whole Male Germ-Cell Development from Mouse Pluripotent Stem Cells

DOI

10.
1016/j.
stem.
2021.
08.
005