Reproductive Research Now Looking At Stem Cell Research
Related News: Cloning News, Stem Cell ResearchResearchers in Britain are now showing that that stem cells extracted from human embryos can be developed into the early forms of cells that become eggs or sperm. This latest announcement increases the likelyhood that one day eggs and sperm needed for infertility treatment could be grown.
To touch also clearly hit a nerve, some of this research also suggests that researchers may eventually be able to use this technique to create eggs for cloning....
The initial benefit is hoped to be a better understanding of why some men and women do not create their own sperm or eggs. The questions include if toxic environmental chemicals one of the researchers said before the start of the annual conference of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology. These latest findings are scheduled to be presented today in Copenhagen.
It is currently thought that chemical pollutants, like pesticides, could mimic the action of hormones which could interfere with human development at the stage where eggs and sperm are forming. And further, that this disruption may cause birth abnormalities, infertility and possibly cancer.
``By developing suitable tests with embryonic stem cells as they differentiate into germ cells, we can investigate the action of these chemicals in the laboratory,'' said Harry Moore, a professor of reproductive and developmental medicine at Sheffield University in England.
Posted on June 20, 2005 02:45 PM