Harvesting Stem Cells From Men
The BBC (citing Nature) recently reported that researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College have discovered a possible - and remarkably painful - alternative to embryonic stem cell research. Using mice, they surgically extracted early stage sperm from their testicles and turned them into cells that can become different types of tissues. Dr Shahin Rafii, who led the project, notes the promise of using human testicular cells to treat diseases:
It appears that these unique specialized spermatogonial cells could be an easily obtained and manipulated source of stem cells with exactly the same capability to form new tissues that we see in embryonic stem cells. For male patients, it could someday mean a readily available source of stem cells that gets around ethical issues linked to embryonic stem cells.
And stem cell researchers thought they had a hard time finding egg donors.