MOSCOW, March 19, Nikolay Guryanov.Japanese biologists received healthy laboratory mice from two males. It caused a sensation in the media. What are the prospects for a new achievement and why the public is so excited — in the material.
Only one percent success
The Japanese have been engaged in technologies for turning stem cells into sex cells since the 1990s.< br />
«The first germ cells of mice were grown in 2016. They were fully functional and developed into full-fledged eggs or sperm cells — after being transferred to the ovaries or testicles (testicles). It was really a sensational discovery,» explains the doctor laboratory «Hemotest» Irina Kolesnikova.
All modern experimental genetics «in a cup» is based on such technologies, the expert notes. Fibroblasts are converted into stem cells. They are called iPSCs — artificial pluripotent. The iPSCs are then differentiated into neurons (cells of the nervous system), cardiomyocytes (muscle cells of the heart), and germ cells. mice. In new researchthe team used biomaterial from the tail of a male laboratory rodent. svadba-1604355641.html» data->
As you know, males have X and Y chromosomes, while females have two X chromosomes. During the experiment, six percent of mouse cells placed in a dish lost their Y and reincarnated as embryonic XO. In them, scientists using the drug Reversin doubled the X chromosomes, turning the cells into female ones.
The eggs were then fertilized with the sperm of another male mouse and implanted in the uterus of female surrogate mothers.
There were 630 attempts in total, and only seven of them — that is, just over one percent — were successful. The pups showed no signs of anomalies. Moreover, the offspring of two fathers have demonstrated the ability to give offspring.
A man can handle it himself
The authors themselves evaluate their results cautiously. At the Third International Human Genome Editing Summit in London, Hayashi warned that the technology is still far from being applied to humans: there are many ethical and purely scientific problems.
«There is a big difference between a mouse and a human» , he reminded.
The experts were less restrained in their assessments.
Nitzan Gonen, head of the sex determination lab at Israel's Bar-Ilan University, called the work «revolutionary», according to Agence France-Presse. In her opinion, this will help male partners to have a baby in the future.
Moreover, there will be an option to do without a partner at all. «It's more like cloning, like what they did with Dolly the sheep,» Gonen says.
She believes that the new technology will be tested on humans in 10-15 years.
Breakthrough, but not a revolution
Russian specialists are less enthusiastic.
«This is a purely scientific study that has no real prospects for implementation in the coming years. Such articles should not be overestimated,» said Alexander Lapshikhin, a reproductive specialist at the Remedi clinic.
According to Irina Kolesnikova, the new work is «an important, but not a revolutionary achievement.»
«In this example, we see what can be obtained from ordinary fibroblasts: complex cells, embryos, and even offspring,» she notes.< br />The issue of implementation should be addressed not to doctors, but to ethical committees, the expert believes. Experiments on human embryos are prohibited almost everywhere. Basic research is carried out, but the rule is that any embryo must be destroyed after two weeks. //ria.ru/20221105/nikotin-1829017630.html» data->
«Therefore, in the foreseeable future, it is unlikely that a human fetus will be obtained in this way — not a single ethical committee will allow it. But it is possible that certain technologies will be used for IVF,” says Kolesnikova.
Reproductologist Anna Ilyina, head of the ART department at the Life Line reproduction center, adds: the method is promising for the treatment of severe forms of infertility. For example, Shershevsky-Turner syndrome, in which one copy of the X chromosome is missing completely or partially.
However, now in Russia this is impossible not only for ethical and technical reasons — such technologies are contrary to applicable laws.