New Stem Cell Research Aims to Stop Boys Losing Fertility after Childhood Cancer Treatment
Earlier research has indeed shown that it was possible to perform a transplant of sperm stem cells from donors into the testes of infertile mice, thus restoring their fertility. However, the testes of prepubescent boys do contain so few immature sperm cells that it would be impossible to do this without actually multiplying them in the lab. It has also been observed that by isolating particular cells from the tests referred to as endothelial cells, which have been found to be critical in supporting the growth of the immature sperm cells. Efforts have been also made to a cocktail of 5 key proteins thus produced by these endothelial cells that were essential in order to keep the sperm stem cells alive and also replicate them on a long-term basis. Furthermore, tests were conducted on the method in infertile mice and were also able to restore fertility, which has been proven by the male mice that have been fathering pups. For years, in fact, researchers have indeed been trying to fin...