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Human Sperm Produced In the Laboratory

Posted by timothy on from the that's-not-starting-from-scratch dept.

duh P3rf3ss3r writes "The BBC is carrying a report from a team of researchers at Newcastle University who claim to have developed a the first 'artificial' human sperm from stem cells. The research, reported in the journal Stem Cells and Development, involved selecting meristematic germ cells from a human embryonic stem cell culture and inducing meiosis, thus producing a haploid gamete. The authors claim that the resulting sperm are fully formed, mature, human sperm cells but the announcement has been greeted with mixed reaction from colleagues who claim the procedure is ethically questionable and that the gametes produced are of inferior levels of maturation."

10 of 368 comments (clear)

  1. So what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    What's the big deal? I generate human sperm at least once a day and I don't even need a laboratory.

    1. Re:So what? by cashman73 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Or, 3. if they took stem cells from a lesbian, they could generate some sperm for her, thereby along her to impregnate her other female partner. Next, all they need to do is to generate an egg cell from a homosexual male stem cell. Then, once same-sex couples can successfully reproduce, the religious right is going to go apeshit and all hell is going to break loose! ;-)

    2. Re:So what? by ElKry · · Score: 5, Interesting

      And, on a chilling (for me) twist, if they took stem cells from a woman, they could generate some sperm for her, thereby allowing her to impregnate herself .

    3. Re:So what? by interkin3tic · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Sperm doesn't have pairs of chromesomes, it has only one. But you're right, if you make sperm from female stem cells it could only have an X chromesome, never a Y chromesome, so you'd only get female offspring.

      The only inherent loss of genetic diversity would be the Y chromesome, which doesn't have much genetic information on it anyway. The wiki page on the Y chromesome points out that "the human Y chromosome itself contains only 78 working genes, compared to close to 1500 working genes on the X chromosome" and none of the 78 are "vital." For women anyway for obvious reasons.

      As long as the female that the sperm are derived from isn't closely related to the female that produces the egg, it wouldn't seem like there would be diversity loss.

  2. Misread by StDoodle · · Score: 5, Funny

    Is it any surprise that, with such an article, I had to do a double-take to properly read "...inferior levels of maturation."

  3. It's about time... by Tenek · · Score: 5, Funny

    Finally, this will address the critical shortage of sperm we face today.

  4. This story is just too hard to swallow! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I couldn't resist.

  5. Re:Sperm Shortage? by f8l_0e · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Consider a man a wife. The husband is infertile for reasons other than motility. They could now have a child with sperm produced from his stem cells.

  6. One upped by psychicninja · · Score: 5, Funny
    Man, this kind of beats the story I was just about to submit:

    Human Sperm Produced In The Lavatory

  7. Huge waste of tax dollars by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    We give these scientists grant money to build labs to work on scientific discoveries. And they turn around and spend all day masturbating in the labs!