Induced pluripotent stem cells, created from marmoset blood cells, have been used to create sperm precursor cells, in vitro.
Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, working with collaborators from the University of Texas at San Antonio and Texas Biomedical Research Institute, cultured these precursor cells with mouse testicular cells for a month. This resulted in some cells beginning to express genes associated with later-stage sperm cell precursors, authors reported in the paper published in eLife.
'Scientists know how to generate functional sperm and egg from induced pluripotent stem cells in mice, but mouse germ cells are very different from human germ cells,' said lead author Dr Kotaro Sasaki. 'By studying marmosets, whose biology more closely resembles ours, we can bridge the gap.'
