A new study conducted by researchers from Oregon Health & Science University has developed a new technique to treat infertility. This approach will allow skin cells to be transformed into eggs capable of producing viable embryos.
This research was conducted on a mouse model, and the researchers documented in vitro gametogenesis (the technique of artificially creating gametes) through the early stages of a method based on transferring skin cell nuclei into certain eggs whose nucleus had been removed. “By experimenting on mice, the researchers have caused skin cell nuclei to share half of their chromosomes, so that they can be fertilized by sperm to produce a viable embryo,” the statement said. These results were published in the journal Science Advances.
“The goal is to produce eggs for patients who do not have them,” explained lead author Shoukhrat Mitalipov, director of the OHSU Embryonic and Cellular Gene Therapy Center. This technique can be used by older women or those who are unable to produce eggs due to previous anticancer treatment or other causes. “This also raises the possibility that men living in homosexual relationships could have children genetically related to both parents,” the statement added.
In these studies, scientists focused on a technique based on somatic cell nucleus transfer. In this case, the nucleus of the skin cell is transplanted into a donor egg that is free of its own cellular nucleus. This is the same technique used to clone Dolly the sheep in 1996.
As detailed in the statement, the technique used by the researchers consists of three steps. The researchers transplanted mouse skin cell nuclei into mouse eggs devoid of their own cellular nucleus. “Pushed by the cytoplasm (the fluid that fills cells) present in the donor egg, the implanted skin cell nucleus removes half of its chromosomes. The process is similar to meiosis, that is, cell division to produce mature sperm or eggs. This is a key step in achieving a haploid egg with a single set of chromosomes,” the study detailed.
The researchers then fertilized the new eggs with sperm during in vitro fertilization. “This creates an embryo with two sets of chromosomes, which will eventually produce healthy offspring with equal genetic contributions from both parents,” the researchers concluded.