A team of researchers working with cells from mice has overcome a technical barrier and succeeded in growing sperm progenitor cells in laboratory culture. The researchers transplanted the cells into infertile mice, which were then able to produce sperm and father offspring that were genetically related to the donor mice.
“This advance opens up an exciting range of possibilities for future research, from developing new treatments for male infertility to enhancing the survival of endangered species,” said Duane Alexander, M.D., Director of the NICHD.
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The American Society for Cell Biology, with membership of 11,000 basic biomedical researchers in the United States and 50 countries around the world, opposes any action by the United Nations that would prohibit valuable stem cell research with the potential to understand and treat disease. The Society remains supportive of the resolution introduced in the U.N. in 2003 that would ban reproductive cloning but allow stem cell research to continue.

Since 1997, the American Society for Cell Biology has opposed human reproductive cloning. Despite sometimes politically motivated claims, current peer-reviewed scientific research suggests that technology now available cannot result in the creation through cloning of an embryo capable of being born as a healthy human.
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