by Louise-Anne Geddes, Mindful Mum, 5th January 2012

The study received external funding from the German-Israel Foundation and was published in the Asian Journal of Andrology.  According to NHS Choices, the story is based on a laboratory experiment in which scientists were able to take cells obtained from the testes of young mice and grow them into mouse sperm in the laboratory. They grew the sperm using a special nutrient-rich jelly in a 3D environment, which they say more closely resembles the environment found in the testes than the systems used in previous, unsuccessful experiments.

A long way to go

However, despite the research being of interest, NHS Choices state that:

“There is a long way to go before scientists can know if the same techniques could be used to grow human sperm in the laboratory. In particular, it is unknown whether appropriate cells could be obtained from humans, and whether they would behave in the same way as testicular cells taken from immature mice when grown in the laboratory. It should also be noted that the scientists were unable to isolate live mouse sperm in this experiment or test if they were capable of fertilising mouse eggs”.

Conclusions

NHS Choices concluded that:

“Although this development is of interest, a lot more research will be needed to determine whether this method provides a viable way of producing functioning, normal sperm in the laboratory. It will need to be perfected on mice first before being tested using human cells. Scientists do not yet know whether adult human testicular cells isolated and cultured in the laboratory would behave in the same way as testicular cells taken from immature mice. Therefore, there is still a long way to go before this method could potentially grow human sperm and be used as a treatment for male infertility”.

Source:
NHS Choices: Behind the headlines, Scientists grow sperm in labs, 4 January 2012

Photography: Kim Carpenter @Flickr