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A team of researchers at Kyushu University in Japan has succeeded in producing eggs from two male mice and giving birth to baby mice.
According to foreign media such as the Guardian on the 8th local time, at the International Conference on Human Genome Editing in London, a research team led by Professor Katsuhiko Hayashi of Kyushu University in Japan announced the results of a study that created mammalian oocyte from male cells.
Professor Katsuhiko's team cultured 600 embryos and obtained a total of seven baby mice with an efficiency of about 1%, and the laboratory embryo success rate was about 7%, which is lower than the efficiency of a normal female egg embryo of 1%, but the seven baby mice born only with male genes enjoyed a healthy life expectancy and were able to reproduce.
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The study was originally started with the aim of finding a fertility treatment, and was conducted to see if it could make the "XX chromosomes" necessary for normal egg development.
The team first generated differentiated induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) from skin cells in male mice. In this process, those without the Y chromosome were selected, the X chromosome was replaced, and the eggs made by culturing cells with the XX chromosome were fertilized with male sperm.
Later, as normal baby mice were born from embryos implanted in female mice, the team confirmed that male cells could cultivate reproducing oocyte cells (XX chromosomes).
If this research can be applied to humans, it could not only treat "Turner syndrome," in which chromosomal abnormalities cause ovarian dysfunction, but also the birth of biological children of same-sex couples.
However, Professor Kazuhiko said that there are still considerable difficulties in producing mature eggs from human cells, and social problems may arise.
However, from a technological point of view, it is possible to make human eggs from male cells (XY chromosomes) within 10 years, and it may one day be possible for male same-sex couples to have children.
Commenting on the findings, Professor Amander Clark of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) said, "Moving this research into human cells will be a big leap forward because scientists have not yet produced human eggs from female cells."
(Photo = YouTube 'KyushuUniv')