Genesis Fertility Clinic Blog
searching: “stem cells”
November 12, 2009
Making eggs and sperm
In the National Post last week, there was an story titled “Scientists make cells that form eggs, sperm in lab.” Like so many medical headlines, it sounds much more promising and simple than the reality. Nevertheless, researchers out of the UK were able to make germ cell precursors (the cells from which eggs and sperm arise) out of embryonic stem cells.
You can read the full article in the National Post.
What’s important is that we are inching closer to understanding how eggs and sperm are produced in humans. This understanding can help us determine why some people don’t produce adequate numbers of eggs or sperm to be fertile, or why some people produce poor quality eggs or sperm which can also render them infertile. After that, then we can hopefully treat the underlying problem and help infertile couples. We are years away from such treatments, but it’s exciting to see progress being made in the right direction.
Dr. Beth Taylor, MD, FRCSC
Reproductive Endocrinology & Infertility
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July 13, 2009Stem Cells And Sperm
Fertility is in the media spot light more and more these last few years. Most recently, an article published in Stem Cells and Development started a small media frenzy that even had me roped in. The story was that a group of researchers in the UK had reported that they had found a way of converting embryonic stem cells into sperm.
Some of you might have seen me interviewed on CTV about this research. The media was looking for a local fertility expert’s opinion and I was glad to have the chance to give a perspective on what this research means for men with sperm issues-now.
Some people wonder whether all this work will eventually make men obsolete! Well, we are quite a few years away from this technology being useful in that regard. First of all, the sperm that were made have not been used to make a human being. Also, it appears that the male Y chromosome is still critical to sperm development as stem cells from “female” embryos weren’t able to be converted to sperm.
So while this research is very interesting it is still in the early stages. In summary, what the researchers did was take an egg and a sperm and make an embryo in the laboratory – something we do here every day at Genesis. They then took that embryo and divided out the stem cells. Stem cells are cells that have not decided what they want to “be” yet and they therefore, are not committed to being a muscle or bone or sperm cell. They then cultured these embryos in the laboratory and in the right environment were able to turn these cells into sperm.
There are a couple of problems with this, though. Notice that they needed a sperm to MAKE the embryo in the first place. What would be more interesting is if they took a stem cell from an adult male who doesn’t make sperm for some reason and turn one of his stem cells into sperm – now that would have more applications in the clinic! Stem cells from adults like you and me are very different than embryonic stem cells and so this research isn’t easily transferable to adults who want to reproduce.
The second issue is that there is some debate as to whether the sperm that we made are actually “sperm”. The cells look like sperm in that they have a tail and move and they have some “markers” of sperm but they haven’t been used to make an embryo yet.
It is clear that a lot of people are uncomfortable with some of the ethical issues that arise with this type of work. Some people are upset that embryos and stem cells are being used for research at all. It is important to realize that reproductive technologies in Canada are regulated by the Assisted Human Reproduction Agency located here in Vancouver. The agency’s mandate it to ensure that the regulations included in the Assisted Human Reproduction Act are being adhered to. Practically, that means that although this research may shed light into how sperm is made, it would not be legal to use such derived sperm to make a human being.
Dr. Jason Hitkari, MD, FRCSC
Reproductive Endocrinology & Infertility