MICE have been used to make human sperm, researchers say.
The discovery shows the animals can be used as surrogate sperm producers for men who cannot produce viable sperm of their own.
The research could, however, prove controversial because it gives a separate species an intimate role in human reproduction.
"Our data indicate that the mouse can yield human sperm cells," said Irina Kerkis of the Roger Abdelmassih clinic and research centre in Sao Paolo, Brazil.
Dr Kerkis, whose earlier fertility research has been published in the scientific journal Nature, will outline her findings this week at the annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Barcelona.
In an advance summary, Dr Kerkis describes how she and her colleagues first extracted dental pulp from the tooth of a male donor.
The pulp, found in the soft material in the centre of teeth, is rich in stem cells.
These are the precursors of almost every type of cell in the body, with the power to develop into anything from heart muscle to brain cells.
Dr Kerkis then isolated the stem cells from the dental pulp and injected them into the testes of live male mice.
The mice were killed after the injection and their testes examined. Dr Kerkis found the human stem cells had successfully "differentiated" into cells that were producing viable sperm.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23979830-401,00.html
Human sperm cells artificially created for first time
HUMAN sperm cells have been artificially created for the first time, offering hope to thousands of men with low sperm counts or who have been left infertile by cancer treatment.
German scientists said fully-functioning sperm cells could be manufactured within five years to use in in-vitro fertilisation.
Scientists took samples from the bone marrow of volunteers and isolated stem cells known as mesenchymal cells, which were then treated with vitamin A to transform them into primordial germ cells - the first stage in sperm production. Some were then further developed into advanced spermatagonial stem cells.
Prof Karim Nayernia, who carried out the research and is now studying how to make spermatagonial cells enter the final stage of development, said: "We are very excited about this discovery, particularly as our earlier work in mice suggests we could develop the work even further.
"If we could solve this problem, and I think it is possible, the next stage will be to produce functional sperm."
Pro-life campaigners welcomed the research.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21550026-2,00.html
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