LONDON — (CNN) It might be possible in the future to make babies without female eggs, new research claims.
Scientists at Bath University in the United Kingdom say they have successfully used sperm to create healthy baby mice by injecting the sperm cells directly into embryos.
“This is the first time that full term development has been achieved (this way),” Dr Tony Perry, University of Bath molecular embryologist and lead researcher, said in a statement.
“It had been thought that only an egg cell was capable of reprogramming sperm to allow embryonic development to take place.”
This isn’t the first time scientists have attempted unconventional fertilization techniques — previously researchers “tricked” eggs into developing into embryos without fertilization by sperm.
But the resulting embryos died after just a few days.
200 years of science overturned?
According to the study, which was released in the journal Nature on September 13, one in four mice born using only sperm survived and grew to be healthy adults, able to procreate.
“Our work challenges the dogma, held since early embryologists first observed mammalian eggs around 1827 and observed fertilization 50 years later, that only an egg cell fertilized by a sperm cell can result in a mammalian birth,” Perry said.
The discovery could have potential applications for future treatment of infertility, Dr Paul Colville-Nash from the UK’s Medical Research Council said in a statement.
“This is an exciting piece of research which may help us to understand more about how human life begins and what controls the viability of embryos, mechanisms which may be important to fertility.” The Medical Research Council helped fund the research.
The-CNN-Wire ™ & © 2016 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved. (PHOTO: Dr Tony Perry/University of Bath/PA)
