Frankensperm
Will men become obsolete? Scientists have created immature (there are other kinds) of sperm from bone marrow stem cells. When the initial report broke earlier this year, publications were quick to come up with saucy headlines about men becoming pointless decorations and women growing their own sperm. And there was the requisite rant or fifty from Angry Guy. But shelve your frankensperm fantasies for now, ladies who tick (coughnelsoncough): the creation of immature sperm cells is a very early step in having an extra way to get knocked up. For now, this is strictly murine (always the damn mice).
Related News: As if they needed any more public health problems right now, China is facing a sperm shortage. Turns out the young sperm-bank-flocking population isn’t fit or healthy enough to pass the basic quality standards required for donation. Wal-Mart bemoans the possible population shortage.
3 opinions for Frankensperm
Jon
Sep 13, 2007 at 11:35 am
You might also want to check out recent research from Kono’s group in Nature Biotechnology.
Nat Biotechnol. 2007 Sep;25(9):1045-50. Epub 2007 Aug 19. PMID: 17704765
They have been doing research on maternally derived embryos. That’s right- no sperm at all. Two female cells are fused using SCNT (Single Cell Nuclear Transfer), and the offspring is viable (to a degree). It’s an interesting, if confusing read. I had to go through it several times before it made sense.
In a nutshell, they make eggs more sperm-like due to a change in the imprinting of the chromosomes. They grab chromosomes that have been de-imprinted and put them in a cell that has a maternally imprinted set of chromosome. They implant it into mice and let it develop. There are developmental changes (obviously expected), but a percentage (thank Mendel) survive to adulthood.
Sara
Sep 13, 2007 at 12:47 pm
Jon, fascinating. Thanks for commenting. :)
Chad
Sep 27, 2007 at 2:44 pm
I thought you might be interested in Mo Rocca’s hilarious reporting on the mad cow related sperm shortage:
http://tinyurl.com/38rxm5
It definitely had me laughing; hope you enjoy it!
Chad
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