Scientists create healthy sperm in lab

A common genetic cause of male infertility can be overcome using a technique that creates healthy sperm in the laboratory, scientists have shown.

The research, demonstrated in mice, raises hope for men who cannot father children as they have three instead of two sex chromosomes. But such a treatment wouldnotbeallowed in the UK without a change in the law that bans the use of artificially produced sperm to make babies.

An estimated one in 500 boys are born with an extra X or Y sex chromosome that can disrupt the formation of mature sperm, leading to infertility.

Scientists at London’s Francis Crick Institute, working with Japanese colleagues, used a stem cell technique to produce sperm from small pieces of connective tissue taken from the ears of infertile male mice affected the same way.