Scientists Have Created Mice With Two Fathers After Using Egg From Male Cells
Image: Maggie Bartlett/Wikimedia Commons
Scientists have had a breakthrough with the creation of mice with two biological fathers, opening up new possibilities for reproduction and fertility treatments for humans.
This was made possible by scientists generating eggs from male cells and this could open the way for those with infertility issues and even same-sex couples to have a child in the future.
Leading the work at Kyushu University in Japan is the pioneer in the field of lab-grown eggs and sperm, Katsuhiko Hayashi. He has presented his team’s work at the Third International Summit on Human Genome Editing in London.
“This is the first case of making robust mammal oocytes from male cells,” he said.
Hayashi has laid out a prediction that it could be possible to create a viable human egg from a male skin cell within a decade. This has been seen as an optimistic timeline as scientists have yet to create a viable lab-grown human egg from female cells.
Previously, scientists have created mice with two biological fathers through the use of genetic engineering, Hayashi’s team’s work is the first time viable eggs have been cultivated from male cells.
This marks a significant advance and the team is now hoping to replicate this achievement with human cells.
However, caution is advised as creating lab-grown gametes from human cells presents more of a challenge than mice cells.
“The trick of this, the biggest trick, is the duplication of the X chromosome,” said Hayashi.
“We really tried to establish a system to duplicate the X chromosome.”
