10:16am Wednesday 8th July 2009
Is the creation of human sperm in a laboratory the beginning of the end for men?
As a team of scientists in the North-East announce a breakthrough today, Joe Willis investigates.
THE experts are adamant – the new in vitro derived (IVD) sperm will not be used to make babies. In a question and answer document issued this week ahead of the announcement of the breakthrough by Newcastle University and the North-East England Stem Cell Institute, the message is clear.
“The IVD sperm will not and cannot be used for fertility treatment,” it advises. It later states “this work is not being done to make babies”, before adding that “sperm developed from embryonic stem cells cannot be used as a fertility treatment”.
However, it goes on to say that the sperm could possibly make a baby – but the scientists are not ready or allowed to just yet.
We could, but we won’t, seems to be the message.
According to the scientists, the sperm show all the characteristics of normal “man-made”
sperm – that is they look the same. They have a tail, they can swim and it is believed that, were they implanted in a woman, they would know instinctively what to do.
More tests have to be done to find out if this is, indeed, the case and that once they reached the egg, they would be able to fertilise it. But if these are successful, researchers would use the technique to make a baby animal. If that worked, what then would stop them from using the sperm to make a human?
At present, using IVD sperm for fertility treatment is illegal, meaning a change in the law would be necessary.
Professor Karim Nayernia, who is leading the project, says that, for his team, the fertilisation of human eggs and implantation of embryos is not of interest and would hold “no scientific merit”.
According to Prof Nayernia, the research is being done to investigate why some people are infertile and to look at new ways of curing infertility – not to use the IVD sperm to directly cure infertility or to render men obsolete in the baby-making process.
Few question the need for more research into male infertility. Figures show that approximately one in seven couples have fertility problems, with the man responsible in about half of all cases.
In 20 per cent of couples, low sperm count or quality is the only cause of infertility, and it is a contributory factor in a further 25 per cent of couples. In 30 to 50 per cent of men, no cause can be identified for the poor sperm characteristics.
Prof Nayernia also believes the breakthrough will create a better understanding of how genetic diseases are passed on from one generation to the next.
“While we can understand that some people may have concerns, this does not mean that humans can be produced in a dish and we have no intention of doing this,” he says.
“This work is a way of investigating why some people are infertile and the reasons behind it. If we have a better understanding of what’s going on, it could lead to new ways of treating infertility.”
He suggests that, in the future, the research could help treat young boys who have to undergo chemotherapy which often leaves them infertile.
However, while the professor says these sperm will not be used to make babies, he accepts that other lab-made sperm could one day be called into action for this purpose.
While some might fear the uses could include an aid to women who want a man-free conception, these are not the kind of examples given by Prof Nayernia.
Although he admits it is more than a decade away, he hopes that one day IVD sperm could help men who are currently infertile to have a baby which is genetically theirs. Stem cells from somewhere other than the embryo would be used, for example skin cells.
The Newcastle-based team of 20 researchers believes a debate should take place so that the law is changed before the science is in place to allow these breakthroughs. This debate will surely be fired up today with the publication of the team’s success in the academic journal Stem Cells and Development.
One of the first to express an opinion is Josephine Quintavalle, from Comment of Reproductive Ethics (Core). Although she supports work to cure infertility, she is uneasy with the use of human embryos to make the sperm.
‘CORE is very much in favour of curing infertility, which is the objective of this research involving the creation of sperm artificially,” she says. “This particular solution, however, depends in the first instance on the sacrifice of human embryos to obtain starter embryonic stem cells, which is an unethical trade-off we cannot support.”
And it is a safe bet that, today, at least one national newspaper will use hyperbole to herald the “demise of men”. So is this indeed the beginning of the end for men?
Prof Nayernia says not. In this technique, IVD sperm can only be produced from an embryo containing the Y chromosome, which are only found in men. Attempts were made to make sperm from stem cells with female XX chromosomes, but these were unsuccessful.
Researchers said this demonstrated that the genes on a Y chromosome were essential for sperm maturation. So if you do want to make a baby using laboratory-made sperm you still need a man… or at least a tiny little bit of a man.
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