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Lab-Made Eggs Produce Healthy Mice
ananyo writes "Japanese researchers have coaxed mouse stem cells into becoming viable eggs that produce healthy offspring. Last year, the same team successfully used mouse stem cells to make functional sperm (other groups have produced sperm cells in vitro). The researchers used a cocktail of growth factors to transform stem cells into egg precursors. When they added these egg precursor cells to embryonic ovary tissue that did not contain sex cells, the mixture spontaneously formed ovary-like structures, which they then grafted onto natural ovaries in female mice. After four weeks, the stem-cell-derived cells had matured into oocytes. The team removed the oocytes from the ovaries, fertilized them and transplanted the embryos into foster mothers. The offspring that were produced grew up to be fertile themselves."
Robotic spaceships that produce humans at their destination here we come!
inquiring Pythons want to know.
Where are my cheese eating death machines?
This signature intentionally left blank.
I, for one, welcome our new rat overlords
Lab Notes: August 12, 2023
Einsla is becoming a remarkable young woman. She speaks 29 languages and has built 7 helper bots from spare parts found around the lab. She even re-engineered her iPhone 15 to send tweets telepathically. Who'd a thunk that stem cell eggs and sperm would be so friggin dope?
Lab ntes : Octobre 54, bleh
Einsla is all-powerful. I must obey. farble-blerp. please get out of my mind. [end of transcript]
-badford
Fucking mice! Where all the the fucking mice! Is nothing so natural as to fuck like mice anymore?
is developing a robot cat specializing in nabbing and eating the stem cell mice.
This result is certainly cool in itself, and will probably (eventually) find application in squicking the moralists when an egg produced from a gay man's stem cells is united with sperm synthesized from a transexual woman or something(and will those fireworks ever be worth watching...); but what percentage of the more prosaic fertility-clinic cases are ultimately caused by defective eggs?
I've heard of some cases where the mitochondrial DNA is defective, so the only way to produce a healthy child is by slapping 3rd-party mitochondria into the maternal egg cell before fertilization, and lots of cases where sperm defects end up requiring IVF, sometimes with donor sperm. Are there also a fairly large number of cases where defective eggs are the cause of infertility that just can't be addressed at present by anything other than using donor gametes?
I'll be impressed when scientists can make life from nonlife.
If you're not sure what practical application this research contributes to, consider this: We can now create genetic offspring of infertile people. More than that, we can now create genetic offspring of people without their knowledge or consent. All we need is a stem cell sample. Note recent research that enables skin cells to be turned into stem cells.
It shouldn't be long before companies are advertising services like 'Have George Clooney's baby' or 'Father Christina Hendricks' child'. That's just the tip of the iceberg. The first child with two daddies -- literally -- is just around the corner.
Genocide Man -- Life is funny. Death is funnier. Mass murder can be hilarious.
Make sperm and egg from the same source.. Surprised they didn't try that.
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Let's see: stem cells -> eggs -> ovary tissue -> natural ovaries -> oocytes -> removed from ovaries -> fertilized -> transplanted into "foster mothers"... To me, that sounds like a combination between Frankenstein and Fantastic Voyage
Because we all know, making sure the survival of mice, is of utmost paramount! Especially making sure that mice breed like... mice!
about whether people conceived this way have souls, in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ...
See this news item: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhpqqNZMx50
The practical application of this procedure is probably some way off. If perfected for humans, it could become the ultimate fertility treatment. So long as you have a body, you can have a baby. Surrogate mothers probably needed though.
As of now, it's interesting research that won't interest vain but rich pet owners. You aren't producing a time-shifted twin of the older organism. But if the egg/sperm cells produced are healthy, you might well produce an artifical hermaphrodite where the father and mother are the same.
Maybe in the future gay and lesbian couples can become the full biological parents of their own children without resort to a third-party donor or surrogate.
Sounds sort of like jurassic park.
It's just a shame they were expecting parrots to hatch....
Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
So if someone steals some skin cells turns them into an egg or sperm which is used to create a child. Is that kid mine? Am I legally responsible? Should I even care?
My first thought on reading the headline was that they made mice that hatched from eggs. The actual discovery is much less impressive.
Turns out, their math and verbal skills are total shit.
Oh sure, drop off colonists after raising them on "Jersey Shore" reruns and "Mythbusters" episodes...
You'll have a generation of resourceful, but unproductive colonists who spend their time doing things like:
- testing the myth that duct tape can be used both as a substitute for heat shielding AND as a quick way to remove unwanted hairs;
- trying to make energy drinks out of hydrazine;
- using the interstellar medium as an in vivo paternity test to identify one's "baby daddy";
- and figuring out whether a tan from Gliese 581 will have the appropriate carrot-orange hue, or will be more towards the reddish, dwarfy end of the spectrum (as seen in a 22-year-old viral video beamed in from Earth, natch).
Are these the same Japanese scientists who are trying to clone a mammoth? Because this research seems rather pertinent towards that goal.
(1) stem cells -> sperm
(2) stem cells -> egg precursors
(3) egg precursors + embryonic ovary tissue -> ovary-like structure
(4) ovary-like structure + graft onto natural ovaries in female mouse + waiting -> oocytes
(5) remove the resulting oocytes from mouse + fertilize with sperm -> embryo
OK, those are the steps taken in the Japanese experiment, without modification. And now the insertion of a new step, to create the clone:
(6) replace the DNA in the embryo with the DNA of the mouse to be cloned!
And then return to the final step in the Japanese experiment:
(7) Put embryo in to foster mother mouse
Voila! Clone.
Obviously it would be really neat to obviate the need for a female mouse in step (4).
And, of course, the holy grail is to eliminate the need for the foster mother mouse in step (7), by simulating a complete uterus, with blood supply (oxygenated, CO2 removal, nutrients), appropriate hormone signals at the proper times, and digestive bacteria, and any other temporal sequence of biological signals are needed.
(LOL! Captcha word: "pipeline")
http://www.jamesphogan.com/books/info.php?titleID=29&cmd=summary
"An Earth set well into the next century is going through one of its periodical crises politically, and it looks as if this time they might really press the button for the Big One. If it happens, the only chance for our species to survive would be by preserving a sliver of itself elsewhere, which in practical terms means another star, since nothing closer is readily habitable. There isn't time to organize a manned expedition of such scope from scratch. However, a robot exploratory vessel is under construction to make the first crossing to the Centauri system, and it with a crash program it would be possible to modify the designs to carry sets of human genetic data coded electronically. Additionally, a complement of incubator/nanny/tutor robots can be included, able to convert the electronic data back into chemistry and raise/educate the ensuing offspring while others prepare surface habitats and supporting infrastructure, when a habitable world is discovered. By the time we meet the "Chironians," their culture is into its fifth generation.
In the meantime, Earth went through a dodgy period, but managed in the end to muddle through. The fun begins when a generation ship housing a population of thousands arrives to "reclaim" the colony on behalf of the repressive, authoritarian regime that emerged following the crisis period. The Mayflower II brings with it all the tried and tested apparatus for bringing a recalcitrant population to heel: authority, with its power structure and symbolism, to impress; commercial institutions with the promise of wealth and possessions, to tempt and ensnare; a religious presence, to awe and instill duty and obedience; and if all else fails, armed military force to compel. But what happens when these methods encounter a population that has never been conditioned to respond?"
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
How about a company that grows its own workers?
Who's your daddy now?