Live spermatozoa from frozen testes
Scientists for the first time received healthy sperm "in vitro"
Testes cells of mice grown in a test tube, even after freezing for several weeks, can produce sperm from which healthy and reproducible mice are born, Japanese scientists report in an article to be published on Thursday in the journal Nature.
(Takuya Sato et al., In vitro production of functional sperm in cultured neonatal mouse tests; a short retelling, Sperm grown in a test tube, can be read in Nature News – VM.)
As noted in the commentary to the article, during previous attempts to obtain mammalian sperm "in vitro", scientists failed to reproduce the entire complex process of development of male germ cells and obtain viable offspring from the produced sperm.
A group led by Takehiko Ogawa from Yokohama City University has grown a laboratory culture of a testis – a fragment of an organ in an artificial environment that recreates the conditions under which the process of sperm maturation takes place. At the same time, they used testicular tissues of a newborn mouse, which contained only the original progenitor cells of sperm.
Scientists managed to maintain this process for two months and obtain mature germ cells. Artificial insemination of experimental mice with the obtained spermatozoa led to the birth of mice of both sexes, which themselves were able to produce offspring.
"Our method of growing organ culture in the course of further improvement may be applicable to other mammalian species – this may become the basis for future clinical use of this technology," the scientists write in the paper.
In addition, tissues frozen in nitrogen for 4-25 days after defrosting could also be used to create a laboratory culture – they produced normal sperm cells. According to scientists, these results may be useful for solving the problem of infertility that occurs in some patients, for example, in the treatment of cancer.
The authors of the commentary to the article note that the fertility (ability to reproduce) of animals conceived with the help of sperm "from a test tube" is only an approximate indicator of their health. In order to more accurately assess his condition, additional research will be required.
In addition, previous work in this field has shown that growing gametes (reproductive cells) in the laboratory negatively affects the integrity of genetic information. Therefore, commentators write, it is necessary to check whether the process of "repairing" DNA, which naturally occurs in a living organism, is going on "in vitro".
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru24.03.2011