One-third of couples have trouble conceiving because of male infertility, and in order to conceive must rely on donor sperm and in vitro fertilization. But advances in the study of artificial sperm may change all of that, allowing a father to have a biological connection to his child.

In 2006 a German medical team successfully created artificial sperm in a lab from the embryonic stem cells of mice harvested from their bone marrow. Professors Nayernia and a team of genetic scientists at the Georg-August Unviersity in Gottingen, Germany were able to successfully separate stem cells that had started to turn into sperm. The sperm was grown into adult sperm and injected into the eggs of female mice through in-vitro fertilization. The fertilized eggs were then transplanted into female mice, and after the standard gestational period, the female mice gave birth to seven baby mice of which all but one survived. At the time, Professor Nayernia, was quoted as having said, “This will help us to understand how men produce sperm and why some men are unable to do this. If we understand this we can treat infertility in men.”

The mice born from the original study did however exhibit problems including unusual growth patterns and respiratory problems as Medical News Today reported in 2006.

In the two years since, Dr. Wolfgang Engel, director of Human Genetics at the university, has repeated the experiment on a larger scale and with very early cells called germ cells, which are taken directly from the testes. Through this method, the researchers on his team have created 65 mouse fetuses through in-vitro fertilization with artificial sperm. The fetuses have had a high mortality rate with only 12 of the 65 reaching full-term birth. Of those 12, even of the newborn animals died within a period ranging from three days to five months of causes which the team has yet been able to identify. Regarding the mortality rate, in a report from the Australian paper The Age, Engel stated that “you can see that this is all still in the very early experimental stages.”

This new advancement in the research could still be great news for infertile couples since using sperm created from embryonic stem cells is much like using donor sperm where the father has no biological tie to the offspring. Engel, who has had success with in-vitro fertilization with testicular germ cells in mice believes that the process could also work with human testicular germ cells, which at the very least will help researchers understand the causes of infertility in men. Even if producing a child through this method may be years away, Engel is optimistic. “If it works in the mouse, I’m sure it will also work in the human,” Engel says in another recent report.

Dr. Engel’s next challenge is to grow sperm taken from a female germ cell, which could then be used to fertilize another woman’s egg. Creating artificial sperm in this manner would give both partners in a lesbian couple, for example biological ties to the child, if the procedure were successful.

Engel’s research is not without its critics who oppose it on moral and ethical grounds both in Europe and in the United States. In the Australian report, Dr. Engel said his team will stop short of tests on humans in compliance with federal law in Germany which bans all genetic research using human stem cells. But after recent changes in the United Kingdom’s Human Fertilization and Embryology bill as reported by the Observer, one member of Engel’s team has gone to Newcastle, England, to conduct research on artificial human sperm. While success on human subjects will not be without controversy, it will offer new possibilities for infertile and same gender couples seeking to start a family.

Tags: artificial sperm, Engel, genetics, in-vitro fertilization, infertility, science, sperm donor