Scientists in Britain have shown that stem cells extracted from human embryos can develop in the laboratory into the early forms of cells that become eggs or sperm, raising the possibility that one day eggs and sperm needed for infertility treatment could be grown in a dish.
Preliminary experiments also suggest that scientists may eventually be able to use the technique to create a supply of eggs for cloning.
But the more immediate benefit of the work could be a better understanding why some men and women do not create their own sperm or eggs and whether toxic chemicals in the environment may play a role, one of the researchers said before the start of the annual conference of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology. The findings were scheduled to be presented yesterday.
"It may allow us to investigate the very earliest processes of how a human [ovary and testis] develops," said Harry Moore, a professor of reproductive and developmental medicine at Sheffield University in England.
Many scientists believe that chemical pollutants, such as pesticides, that mimic the action of hormones, might interfere with human development at the stage where eggs and sperm -- called germ cells -- are forming and that this disruption may cause birth abnormalities, infertility and possibly cancer.
"By developing suitable tests with embryonic stem cells as they differentiate into germ cells we can investigate the action of these chemicals in the laboratory," Moore said.
Stem cells are the master cells of the body, appearing when embryos are just a few days old and developing into every type of cell and tissue in the body, including sperm and eggs.
Scientists can study the stem cells by extracting them from the embryo. If the researchers create the embryo by cloning a cell from a patient, any resulting cells would be a genetic match to the patient.
The cloning technique, called cell nuclear replacement, involves emptying out the genetic material in an egg and replacing it with the genetic material of another cell, say a skin cell taken from an adult. Instead of being fertilized by sperm, the new reconstituted egg is then bathed in chemical nutrients and electrocuted to shock it into dividing. It then evolves into an embryo, from which stem cells can be extracted.
"We would need to prove that sperm or eggs produced in this way were safe before we could contemplate using them to treat patients," Moore said.
Other experts said the advance from the University of Sheffield could also raise some ethical issues.
"It opens new and challenging possibilities because the technique can be used to generate eggs from a man's [adult] cells, gay couples could have children genetically related to both,'' said Anna Smajdor, a medical ethicist at Imperial College in London.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion