Treating Infertility With Skin Cells?

Sperm precursors have been successfully created from the skin cells of infertile men, which were then used to create apparently healthy sperm cells, according to a recent study. Such research offers hope for infertile men, but also raises some alarming concerns.

The study, published in Cell Reports - a Cell Press scientific journal - details how researchers were able to successfully stimulate infertile men's skin cells into becoming  induced pluripotent stem cells (iPCSs) which were then used to produce sperm precursors.

According to head author of the study, Renee Reijo Pera of the Institute for Stem Cell Biology & Regenerative Medicine and Montana State University, her study is the first to suggest such an unusual solution to male infertility.

"It might even be possible to transplant stem-cell-derived germ cells directly into the testes of men with problems producing sperm," she explained in a Cell Press news release.

According to the study, Pera's team initially looked to otherwise healthy men who suffered from genetic deletions encompassing three Y-chromosome regions that rendered them infertile. Past research has indicated that iPCSs can be used to create reproductive cells from other cells, such as a skin cell. However, early testing revealed to her research team that iPCSs created from these men's cells still carried the genetic information that compromised their ability to create sperm in a lab dish. However, the team found that when these stem cells were transplanted into the genetically modified testes of mice, they produced apparently healthy reproductive cells.

According to the research team, this discovery reveals a general idea of how the genetic defect results in infertility in the first place, and may open opt some options to treat it.

However, some experts have become alarmed by the results of this study. Ronald Green, a bioethicist at Dartmouth University explained in National Public Radio's All Things Considered that while the work gives hope for sterile men, it also reveals that reproductive cells can be created from anyone's cells -- even from a small hair sample.

It may become possible that people will steal genetic samples from people's trash just to create reproductive cells for illicit  sale, green explained in the radio interview.

"You can imagine some clandestine sperm bank saying, 'We're selling George Clooney's sperm,' " said Green.

An alarming prospect, he says, that might not be so far-fetched in light of recent scientific work.