The scientists, led by Dr. Azim Surani, the primitive forms of sperm and egg cells made from the skin of a man because from it can be made both male and female gametes, which is not possible on the basis of women's skin which does not have male chromosome "Y" for spermatoizoid.
Eventually, scientists hope to make sperm cells from a man’s skin and eggs from a woman’s so that infertile couples who cannot produce their own sex cells or “gametes” could still have biological children following IVF, the researchers said.
Scientists Create Artificial Sperm And Eggs From Skin Cells, And It's a Major Breakthrough
Scientists in Japan had already shown that it is possible to produce sex cells from the skin cells of laboratory mice and that these eggs and sperm can be fertilised to produce viable, healthy offspring when placed back into the ovaries of surrogate mothers.
However, no one until now had been able to show that it was possible to pass the first stage of this process with human skin cells. It was achieved by first inducing the skin cells into embryonic-like stem cells and then switching on a key gene called Sox17 to trigger their conversion to primordial germ cells, Professor Surani said.
Scientists use skin cells to create artificial sperm and eggs
The next stage will be to produce synthetic testes or ovaries as simple “organoids” growing in a laboratory dish in which the primordial germs cells will grow and divide into mature sperm and eggs.
A key feature of the study, published in the journal Cell, was that the human primordial germ cells became stripped of the chemicals surrounding the DNA of the chromosomes thought to be responsible for the epigenetic changes a cell undergoes as it develops.
This will lead to a better understanding of ageing and cancer because primordial germ cells are effectively immortal due to their role in ensuring that genetic information is passed on through the generations.
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