Super Sperm Breakthrough

In a breakthrough that could bring new treatment for male infertility, British scientists say they have created human sperm for the first time. A team of researchers led by Karim Nayernia, a professor at Newcastle University, U.K., grew the sperm from embryonic stem cells in a laboratory. The growing method uses retinoic acid, a Vitamin A derivative. Nayernia described the sperm as fully mature and functional.

He told the U.K.’s The Telegraph: "This is very amazing and very exciting. They have heads, they have tails and they move. The shape is not quite normal nor the movement, but they contain the proteins for egg activation."

Though Nayernia suggests new infertility treatments could be developed from this latest development in the next decade, those products may be illegal. Under the U.K.’s Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008, using artificial sperm and eggs in fertility treatment is banned. Creating sperm in a laboratory is allowed, but combining it with an egg to create an embryo for scientific research requires a license. Even with the license, the embryo must be destroyed within 14 days.

Previous achievements of Nayernia’s team include growing immature human sperm from stem cells taken from bone marrow. He also made sperm from mouse embryonic stem cells that was capable of fertilizing eggs and producing pups, although all the mice in that study eventually died.