Study turns skin tissue from infertile men into early-stage sperm cells

Scientists have currently turned skin tissue from infertile men into early-stage spermcells in a study that raises hopes for new therapies for the condition. It is said that about 1% of men cannot make any sperm, a condition known as azoospermia, while a fifth of men have low sperm counts

The success of this was actually unexpected and has surprised many scientists. Most scientists thought that it was impossible for infertile men to make any sperm, but this breakthrough has defied those odds. Most of the men that took part in the study had many genetic defects on their Y sex chromosome which meant that they could not produce healthy sperm. In this study researchers took skin cells from three infertile men and converted them into stem cells, which can actually grow into almost any tissue in the human body.

Cyril Ramathal of Stanford University said, "What we found was that cells from men who did not possess sperm at the time of clinical observation were able to produce the precursors for sperm.”

The study found that the skin cells from the infertile men grew into fewer early-stage sperm cells than cells taken from normally fertile men. Even though this research has just started scientist suspect that the converted skin cells might have grown into mature sperm cells if they had been transplanted into the infertile men's testes. If this suspicion is confirmed then it would be possible to restore male fertility by taking the skin cells of men and turning them into stem cells.

This is a great discovery and I think that the research for this should continue. Infertility in men seems to be growing and is a tragic thing. So, this study will definitely help those men that are completely infertile.