Cell Stem Cell: Successful production of sperm from pluripotent stem cells

For sexually reproducing species, only the male sperm and female eggs can produce offspring

The emergence of pluripotent stem cells allows scientists to study how each cell in the human body is formed

Among all cell types, germ cells are unique for many reasons

In addition, according to Mitinori Saitou, director of the Advanced Institute of Human Biology at Kyoto University, they are the only cells that parents actually pass on to their offspring, which makes them the driving force for species maintenance and evolution

Scientists have made significant progress in producing sperm cells from pluripotent stem cells, at least for mice

Spermatogonial stem cells enable men to produce sperm throughout their lives, but it turns out that the second stage is the most difficult to reproduce in the laboratory

Therefore, the first author, Dr.

Ishikura and colleagues prepared primordial germ cells from mouse pluripotent stem cells and examined more than 10,000 cells generated under 8 different conditions

In order to verify the optimal conditions for the generation of spermatogonial stem cells, they confirmed that these cells have several characteristics in common with the cells in the mouse testis, including the expression of key genes, epigenetics, and transient upregulation of retrotransposons , This was especially unexpected by Saitou

"They regained control of retrotransposons

The same epigenetics is also crucial

To confirm that spermatogonial stem cells behave like cells produced in the body, the researchers injected artificially produced spermatogonial stem cells into mouse testes, where the cells would develop into sperm cells

This research comprehensively reconstructs the developmental process of generating male germ cells from pluripotent stem cells

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Yukiko Ishikura, Hiroshi Ohta, et al.