In a development that may someday help men facing infertility, Chinese scientists have just announced they were able to create sperm in a lab petri dish using embryonic stem cells from mice. The sperm was used to fertilize mouse eggs using in vitro fertilization (IVF), creating healthy babies that went on to have their own offspring. That’s promising.
Embryonic stem cells can actually develop into any type of cell in the body and have previously been used to create sperm. However, in the past, transforming such cells into sperm required the cells to be transplanted into the testicles of mice. The new technique represents an advance as the sperm was able to develop in a lab dish containing testicle cells.
