Bioengineered spermatozoa for macaques

Sperm cells were created from primate stem cells

Olga Ivanova, N+1

It is believed that about 15 percent of married couples face the problem of infertility. Approximately 20-30 percent of such cases are associated with the inability of a man's body to produce viable sperm. The idea of growing germ cells from their own biomaterial is what scientists are looking at to solve the problem.

A few years ago, Chinese researchers demonstrated the possibility of obtaining such spermatozoa in mice. Full-fledged male cells were grown on the basis of embryonic stem cells: they fertilized the eggs of mice, and they then gave healthy offspring. But for people, everything is more complicated — the process of sperm development takes longer and is more difficult for us.

This time, scientists from the Yerkes National Primate Research Center (USA) have shown for the first time that functional sperm cells can be grown using primate embryonic stem cells. They published the results of their work in the journal Fertility and Sterility Science.

To obtain immature spermatozoa – spermatids – the authors of the work used embryonic stem cells of rhesus monkeys. Scientists have shown that they are able to fertilize a monkey egg. According to the researchers, this is the first step towards translating such technology for humans, because, unlike mice, the reproductive mechanisms of rhesus monkeys are similar to human ones.

The next stage of research is implantation of the resulting embryos of the surrogate "mother". So experts plan to check whether the embryos from such spermatids can develop into healthy offspring. They intend to do this in the near future.

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