Scientists in Spain say they have created human sperm from skin cells, which could eventually lead to a treatment for infertility.
The researchers said they were working to find a solution for the roughly 15 per cent of couples worldwide who are unable to have children and whose only option is to use donated gametes (sperm or eggs).
"What to do when someone who wants to have a child lacks gametes?" asked Dr Carlos Simon, scientific director of the Valencian Infertility Institute, Spain's first medical institution fully dedicated to assisted reproduction.
"This is the problem we want to address: to be able to create gametes in people who do not have them."
The result of their research, which was carried out with Stanford University in the United States, was published on Tuesday in Scientific Reports, the online journal of Nature.
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| Infertile sperm cells were created by adding genes to skin cells |
