Published 9 July 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b2790
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b2790

News

Researchers create human sperm using embryonic stem cells

Susan Mayor

1 London

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Researchers have created human sperm using embryonic stem cells for the first time, in research aiming to improve the understanding of male infertility and the transmission of genetic disorders.

A team from the NorthEast England Stem Cell Institute developed the new technique, which enables human sperm cells to be produced in the laboratory. They used human embryonic stem cells with male and female chromosomes (XY and XX) to develop male germline stem cells. Only XY cells were then prompted to complete meiosis—cell division that halves the number of chromosomes. These cells then developed into fully mature, functional sperm, called in vitro derived sperm (IVD sperm) (Stem Cells and Development 2009;8 Jul online, doi:10.1089/scd.2009.0063)

"While the full potential of the human embryonic stem cell derived sperm remains to be demonstrated, this in vitro modeling of human gametogenesis provides a new approach for studying the biology of human germ . . . [Full text of this article]


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