Reproduction of all living things, whether humans or animals, is based on the sperm of a man and the ovum of a woman. Due to the current scientific development and modern scientism, various new researches are being carried out beyond imagination.
For the first time, scientists in Japan have created healthy eggs from the cells of two male mice. It has attracted the attention of the world.
A paper titled ‘Generation of functional oocytes from male mice in vitro’ was published in the journal Nature earlier this month. Researcher Katsuhiko Hayashi and his team of 15 scientists from Kyushu University in Japan conducted the research.
Speaking to CNN, Hayashi said it would take a long time to bring this functionality to humans. It may take 10 years or more. Even if it works in humans, it’s impossible to say whether the egg would be safe enough to produce a baby, he said.
What are the study details?
First, the scientists took skin cells from the tail of a male mouse that looked like a human for the experiment. They have both X and Y chromosomes. These are transformed into pluripotent stem cells or iPSCs.
During this process, a small percentage of cells lose their Y chromosome, forming “XO” cells.
The scientists then grew XO cells in the lab and treated them with a drug called reversin. Later it formed the XX collection.
Hayashi and his team injected XX cells into an artificial uterus. The stem cells were fertilized with sperm from another male mouse. Eggs fertilized using rat sperm were transferred into the uterus of a female rat. Out of 630 embryos thus created, only 7 rat pups were born.
Hayashi presented details of the research at the Third International Summit on Human Genome Editing at the Francis Crick Institute in London in early March. A major trick in this research was the use of a copy of the X chromosome. A careful study is planned to determine whether the mice created in the research are different from conventionally bred mice. Even if this research is successful and can be reproduced in humans, careful consideration must be given to the ethics involved.
After all, evidence emerged this month that three babies can inherit their mothers’ mitochondrial disorders. Approaching reproduction from an alternative angle, this explains how what we think is happening. This is a great achievement. He added that the research is still in its infancy.
Can this technique be used in humans?
Given the one percent success rate of the method scientists use to create mice with two biological fathers, while it is theoretically possible to create children from male-human couples, it would take about 10 years or more to do so, Hayashi said.
Apart from the technical aspect, implementation in humans will require extensive study and research, he said.