The study comes from Dr.
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Lead scientist Dr Tony Perry, a molecular embryologist from the University of Bath, said: “Our work challenges the dogma, held since early embryologists first observed mammalian eggs around 1827 and observed fertilisation 50 years later, that only an egg cell fertilised with a sperm cell can result in live mammalian birth”. These are all-female embryos made without sperm by tricking an egg into developing as if it has been fertilised.
But now the simple arithmetic of baby-making is being challenged by a team of scientists at the University of Bath, who have figured out how to create embryos without the egg. The new findings may eventually help researchers develop better fertility treatments.
The parthenogenotes were then injected with sperm, transforming them into normal embryos that went on to produce healthy offspring.
The team of researchers proposed the futuristic scenario after producing a litter of healthy mice with a technique that bypasses the normal step of fertilising an egg cell with sperm. This is compared to the zero percent success rate if the egg-origin cells kept dividing on their own and died off. A man might even be able to fertilise his own cells to produce a child containing a mixture of genes inherited from him and his parents. This method allowed the parthenogenotes, which behave similarly to skin cells and other cells within the body, to develop as if they were fertilized.
The goal of the research was to understand the mechanisms of fertilization because what actually happens during the fusing of a sperm and an egg is still unclear.
However, their DNA development was marked by different epigenetic signatures than those observed during traditional fertilization. The authors also think it could have ethical consequences for recent notions that human parthenogenotes could potentially be exploited for embryonic stem cells since they were considered inviable. With progress, scientists in the future may be able to breed animals using sperm and non-eggs. The research could also mean that even if a potential mother does not have viable oocytes, for example if they were destroyed during cancer treatments, scientists could one day create an embryo with her skin cells and her husband’s sperm.
An incredible scientific breakthrough could change the way gay couples have children.
The researchers do caution that these possible uses of their research may be years away.
A landmark study has opened up the “fanciful” possibility that babies could be conceived from skin cells – without an egg cell. The cells used by Perry and colleagues were able to do this – the first time a cell other than a natural egg has achieved this. As well, the sperm fertilized cells that only had one set of chromosomes, while skin cells already have two sets of chromosomes. Instead, they theorize that nearly any cell in the body could produce offspring once it has half the chromosomes removed and is combined with a sperm.
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A woman may experience infertility after surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation therapy for cancer has damaged her eggs. Some of the mice born in the latest study have gone on to have pups of their own, and some of these have had offspring too.
