[PEN-L:29457] Of mice and men...

["ken hanly" <khanly@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Pig, goat sperm produced by mice



By ANNE MCILROY
SCIENCE REPORTER



>From the Globe and Mail...cheers, Ken Hanly

Thursday, August 15, 2002 - Page A7


Researchers have succeeded in getting mice to produce healthy pig and goat
sperm, and they say they soon may get the rodents to churn out human sperm.

The mice were turned into foreign-sperm factories when specks of testicular
tissue from a newborn goat and pig were grafted onto their backs, just under
the skin. The squishy mounds of tissue that sprouted after a few weeks
produced vast amounts of sperm.

The researchers made sure the sperm was viable by using it in the laboratory
to fertilize mouse eggs, creating cross-species embryos that they kept for
only a couple of days. The scientists are working on using the
mouse-generated pig and goat sperm to fertilize pig and goat eggs to produce
normal offspring.

Ina Dobrinksi, a veterinarian and researcher at the University of
Pennsylvania, acknowledged that some people may be appalled by her work and
fear it will lead to vast numbers of genetically similar humans being bred
from the technique.

But she said that in a few years the method could be used on men. Doctors
could save testicular tissue from boys about to undergo cancer treatments
that would make them infertile. Later in life the tissue specimens would be
used to produce sperm by implanting them in mice or in their own bodies. The
sperm would be retrieved after the tissue is removed.

"Using a mouse would certainly be easier, but it might not be acceptable to
some people," said Prof. Dobrinksi, whose paper on the first cross-species
production of sperm is to be published in today's issue of the scientific
journal Nature.

The technique also could be used to help preserve species that are in danger
of extinction, such as the grizzly bear, or to reproduce prized livestock.