Mother holding newborn baby’s hand.A major breakthrough in fertility treatment may soon give same-sex couples the ability to have babies genetically related to both parents. This innovative technique addresses infertility by transforming a skin cell into an egg capable of producing viable embryos.
Researchers in Oregon believe this technology has the potential to benefit same-sex couples, women of advanced maternal age, and individuals unable to produce viable eggs, allowing them all to have healthy offspring with genetic contributions from both parents.
The team from the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) has demonstrated the process of in vitro gametogenesis (IVG) in mice. Their novel technique involves transferring the nucleus of a skin cell into a donated egg from which the original nucleus has been removed. The team then modifies the nucleus of the skin cell, halving its chromosome count to enable fertilization by a sperm cell and the creation of a viable embryo.
“The goal is to produce eggs for patients who don’t have their own eggs,” says senior author Shoukhrat Mitalipov, Ph.D., director of the OHSU Center for Embryonic Cell and Gene Therapy, and professor of obstetrics and gynecology, and molecular and cellular biosciences, in the OHSU School of Medicine, in a university release.
The study, featured in the journal Science Advances, opens new possibilities for older women and individuals unable to produce eggs due to cancer or other medical conditions to have babies. Additionally, it introduces the potential for men in same-sex relationships to have children genetically related to both partners.
Rather than trying to convert induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) into sperm or egg cells, researchers at the OHSU refined a technique called somatic nuclear transfer. This method involves transplanting the nucleus of a skin cell into a donor egg from which the original nucleus has been removed. This approach was notably used in 1996 by scientists in Scotland to clone Dolly the sheep using cells from a single parent.
However, the OHSU team achieved results that allow for embryos with chromosomes from both parents. The procedure begins with transplanting a mouse skin cell nucleus into an egg that has had its nucleus removed. Once inside the donor egg, the skin cell nucleus sheds half of its chromosomes, a process encouraged by the egg’s cytoplasm. This step mirrors meiosis, the cell division process that generates mature sperm or egg cells, resulting in a haploid egg containing a single chromosome set.
From there, the researchers fertilize this egg with sperm through in vitro fertilization, creating a diploid embryo with two chromosome sets. This leads to the development of healthy offspring with genetic contributions from both parents.
Source: https://studyfinds.org/fertility-same-sex-couples-babies/