Researchers Successfully Sperm Production

Sperm is a complex cell. Tail, mitochondrial spiral center, heads a special design so it can penetrate the outer membrane of the egg, is the result of a highly sophisticated process of development in the testes.

For nearly a century, researchers always failed in creating this process in the lab. But this time researchers have been getting closer. They managed to grow the testes in the cup and use the sperm to fertilize mice produced.

According to the researchers, this finding has the potential to improve the In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) and artificial insemination techniques in humans.
 
In testing, a group of researchers led by Takehiko Ogawa, reproductive experts from Yokohama City University, Japan, pulled off the testicles of newborn rats aged 2 or 3 days. The aim is to ensure that the rat testicular sperm do not have a mature age.
 
The researchers then put the testicles in a petri dish containing a special medium that includes a component called KSR - often used to develop a system of embryonic cells - and then keep it in order to grow large testicles.
 
After about one month, researchers found that the testes are developing normally and begin to produce sperm. Testis has also been modified so they issued a greenish color when they were grown.
 
When the researchers to extract sperm from the testes are maintained at the plate and menginseminasikannya into female mice, the mice became pregnant and gave birth to children of healthy mice. The testes are maintained is still capable of producing sperm until two months later.
 
Using the same method, researchers were even able to produce sperm from the testes of young has been frozen for a month.
 
"The ability to produce sperm outside the body of animals allowed us to study the molecular mechanism of the growth of sperm with greater ease," Ogawa said, as quoted from Sciencemag, March 24, 2011.
 
"We believe that this method can be applied to larger animals," he said, mentioning that it is the next research priority.
 
In the end, Ogawa and his team hope, lifting techniques and maintaining the testes testes to produce sperm with normal equipment can also be applied to humans.
 
Nonetheless, much remains to be done. Ogawa still need to observe the method in which KSR encourages the growth of sperm that is still not known. In addition, the switch to testing on human testis also has many challenges.

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