Asian Journal of Andrology (AJA) has e-published an Original Article titled ‘Differentiation of murine male germ cells to spermatozoa in a soft agar culture system’ on 7-Nov-2011 which reported a novel system to generate mouse sperm in vitro. This striking study has drawn worldwide attention.
Many presses and websites, such as Daily Telegraph in the UK, Jerusalem Post in Israel and so on, have written news on this research and estimated it as a breakthrough in male fertility. The Daily Telegraph as well conducted a further interview with the authors of this research, Dr Mahmoud Huleihe (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel) and Dr Stefan Schlatt (University of Münster, Germany), meanwhile they also invited some well-known experts in male fertility to give comments on it.
So far, even with our latest microsurgical techniques there are still thousands of men - who are otherwise healthy -who can't naturally father babies and rely on sperm donation. The study published in AJA is a significant step forward towards hand-making human sperm, and if the achievement can be applied in human cells, it may open new revolutionary therapeutic strategies for infertile men who cannot generate sperm or prepubertal cancer patients at risk of infertility due to aggressive therapies, and cannot cryopreserve sperm as in adult patients.
Sperm grown outside a man’s body is a hot topic, as well as an aporia in the field of male fertility, attracting scientists from multiple areas striving for a solution. Dr Mahmoud Huleihe and Dr Stefan Schlatt are heading their team to reproduce their success in mice to help infertile men.
As a major scientific journal of Nature Publishing Group (NPG), AJA has been dedicated to building an academic platform for the exchange of scientific information in order to promote communication and cooperation among scientists and doctors from all over the world. We will also keep a close follow-up with this amazing research, as well as other research highlights in the area of andrology, and offer leading research results on andrology with high visibility.
The original article:
Mahmoud Abu Elhija, Eitan Lunenfeld, Stefan Schlatt, Mahmoud Huleihel. Differentiation of murine male germ cells to spermatozoa in a soft agar culture system. Asian J Androl 2011. e-pub ahead of print 7 November, 2011; doi:10.1038/aja.2011.112. （The paper edition will be available on 1 Mar. 2012. Please stay tuned!） http://www.nature.com/aja/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/aja2011112a.html
Other related articles available in AJA:
Cheung HH, Rennert OM. Generation of fertile sperm in a culture dish: clinical implications. Asian J Androl. 2011 Jul;13(4): 618-9 http://www.nature.com/aja/journal/v13/n4/full/aja201152a.html
Hwang K, Lamb DJ. In vitro production of functional sperm in mice. Asian J Androl. 2011 Nov;13(6): 791-2. http://www.nature.com/aja/journal/v13/n6/full/aja201198a.html
Lo KC, Domes T. Can we grow sperm? A translational perspective on the current animal and human spermatogenesis models. Asian J Androl. 2011 Sep;13(5): 677-82. http://www.nature.com/aja/journal/v13/n5/full/aja201188a.html
(Contributor department: Asian Journal of Andrology)