Artificial Sperm is New Hope of Infertility Couples

According to WHO infertility couples are couples after two years of regular intercourse without contraception, pregnancy does not occur (except on the condition breastfeeding or menopause). Medically, infertility is divided into two, namely primary and secondary infertility, primary infertility say if long-married couples but no children, while secondary infertility is failure to conceive after a previous pregnancy.

Infertility problems affect one in six couples and the breakthrough could give fresh hope for them. (Picture from: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/)

An estimated one in six couples have difficulty having children. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in the United States about 10% of women aged 15-44 had difficulty getting pregnant or having children after a previous pregnancy. In Indonesia, there are about 12-15% of couples of reproductive age having the same problem.

Infertility can occur in men, women and couples, about one-third of infertility cases occur in men. More than 90% of the causes of male infertility caused by low sperm count, sperm quality is not good or because of both.

Advances in science and technology, providing new hope for couples who want to have children soon. One is a phenomenal breakthrough research on synthetic sperm. The research team from Yokohama City University Graduate School of Medicine, supported by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and the Yokohama Foundation for the Advancement of Medical Science (Wadhaf News from The Guardian, 2011), their first take testicular tissue (tissue 1-3 mm diameter) is a network that is composed of many cells producing testes of mice. Mice used in this study are genetically engineered mice (transgenic). Mice carrying the GFP gene that can fluoresce to monitor the development of the network and the number of sperm produced. Networks are then grown in medium containing special nutrients. Every 3-7 days conducted sampling and observed under a microscope.

Sperm were artificially created in a breakthrough experiment which raises ethical questions. Here a sperm approaches an egg. (Picture from: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/)

After the 42-day-old sperm cells, the researchers injected the cells into the egg using intracytoplasmic sperm injection technique (ICSI), this method is similar to in vitro fertilization (IVF) in humans. Based on these results, of the 35 eggs were injected, the process of fertilization and the resulting 10 zygotes (fertilized cells).

Zygote to the uterus and attaches to the uterine wall to grow and develop, after a long process, produced five mice (two males and females tails three tails). In addition, the researchers are also trying to grow the testicular tissue that had been frozen, the results are very promising because even though it was frozen with a special treatment, the network is still able to produce fertile sperm cells. The researchers claim that this method can be applied to humans, providing new hope for infertile men to have a child. *** [FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | ANA INDRAYATI | PIKIRAN RAKYAT 11102012]

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