An artificial testicle which produces human sperm could help solve the problem of male infertility. Previously, researchers have tried to produce sperm cells but they have only managed to complete three-quarters of the process in the laboratory. There need a highly specialized environment that is found in male testicle to complete the process.
Now a team led by Dr. Paul Turek, director of the Turek Clinic, a men’s health medical practice in San Francisco, hope they can make such a sperm-making biological machine, which will be shaped like a cylindrical bag a few inches long and would not be attached to the body.
The device has to be replaced after every round of sperm generation that approximately takes seventy days. The new device is not to be mixed up with a non-sperm-production prosthesis, are normally used by males missing a testicle that are filled with a saline solution.
To create an artificial testicle, the researchers will have to first focus on growing cells that normally nurture sperm during their development, including cells known as Sertoli cells. Then the researchers will add embryonic stem cells, which can turn into virtually any cell in the human body.
Then these stem cells will be fortified with genes to steer them down the correct path, so that the stem cells develop the characteristics of sperm precursor cells. Though, recent studies have shown that it is possible to treat infertile male mice by producing sperm using stem cells from the mouse, but the same has not been done for humans.
Dr Paul Turek’s team has received a grant to construct the artificial testicle and they are working on a prototype and estimated it would take five to seven years to perfect the method. Their main aim is to re-create the testicle in an artificial environment, with all of its components.
It is an ambitious project, but it would be fantastic if it happened. It would be a major impact on the fertility field. No one had yet tried to produce sperm by re-creating the home of sperm cell production, explained Kyle Orwig, an associate professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences from the University of Pittsburgh.