Reproduction Without Eggs, Uterus, or Sperm!

According to the University Research Service of Saed News Agency, and reported by Sina Press:

Given the advances made in this field, a large percentage of infertility cases are now treatable, allowing couples to experience parenthood. However, scientists have recently made discoveries suggesting that creating a new life may no longer require sperm or eggs. These new studies could bring a major revolution in fertility science and help treat many cases of infertility. The journal New Scientist has recently covered this topic in its latest issue.

Researchers at the University of Michigan recently made a remarkable discovery in laboratory studies. They observed that the cells under investigation began to connect with each other and form something resembling a human embryo. The idea that scientists may have taken the first step toward creating human life is astonishing. However, this was not the first breakthrough of its kind. A year earlier, in 2017, Japanese researchers conducted studies that led to the birth of live baby mice. They achieved this using eggs derived from skin cells taken from adult mice.

Such discoveries bring us closer to solving previously untreatable problems in infertility and reproduction. Now, 40 years after the birth of the first IVF baby, these findings represent a major biological transformation that could one day help scientists create human babies. Imagine the possibility of creating a child from a person’s skin cells, with or without their consent.

Approximately 1.5% of all children born in Western Europe, North America, and Australia are conceived through IVF (in vitro fertilization). Thus, creating life outside the human body is already considered relatively normal. However, it remains unpredictable. Scientists still do not fully understand why some embryos fail to implant after IVF or natural fertilization, while others continue to develop successfully.

In IVF procedures, sperm and eggs are taken from parents who are considered fertile and have a reasonable chance of conception. Researchers in Japan have attempted to solve the problem of sperm and egg production using completely unrelated body cells. In experiments on mice, they extracted adult skin cells, reprogrammed them into stem cells capable of becoming any cell type, and then successfully transformed them into sperm or eggs. In 2016, they reported that some of these eggs were fertilized using sperm from normal mice, and the resulting embryos were implanted into a uterus. This experiment resulted in the birth of eight live baby mice.

A year later, researchers repeated the process using laboratory-created sperm. These experiments significantly increased hopes for treating infertility, although efforts to produce human sperm and eggs in the laboratory have so far only succeeded in generating early precursor cells. For example, researchers at the University of Cambridge announced in late 2017 that they aimed to grow early stem cells into the building blocks of sperm and eggs within four weeks. If such cells were implanted into the body, they could potentially mature and enable infertile individuals to conceive.

Promising results were also reported earlier this year by scientists at the University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom. They cultured mature human eggs derived from stem cells found in ovarian tissue under laboratory conditions. This method may also help women who have become infertile due to chemotherapy treatments for cancer.

Why skin cells?

If the production of sperm and eggs from skin cells becomes possible in laboratory conditions, people in wealthy societies with advanced healthcare systems may prefer this method over sexual reproduction. Based on current findings, it is even conceivable that future parents could meet in fertility clinics, where a small sample of their skin cells is taken to generate sperm and eggs from stem cells.

After genetic screening, parents could select fertilized embryos for implantation into the uterus. This would eliminate the painful and invasive process of egg retrieval used in IVF procedures. Men and women who are unable to produce sperm or eggs could still have genetically related children through this method. These screenings could also reduce the risk of genetic diseases.