Making Sperm from Skin Cells

Abstract

However, there is even more of a future possibility for actually restoring the fertility to prepubertal male cancer patients when they are adults, via IPS cells (induced pluripotent stem cells) (Figs. 19.1 and 19.2). IPS cells can be derived from skin cells and then can be differentiated into primordial germ cells (PGC-like cells) or PGCLCs and then into spermatogenic stem cells (SSCs) when they are transferred to the testis. This is not science fiction. We are doing this daily in the lab in mice and soon will be able to do this in humans. These cells derived from IPS cells (that are derived from skin cells) can be transplanted into the sterile testis, and there they colonize the seminiferous tubules and make normal spermatogenic stem cells (SSCs) that will then colonize the testis with spermatogonia. Spermatogonial stem cell (SSC) culture with transplantation and conversion of skin cells to sperm will be the most fruitful areas of future research in male infertility, aside from molecular characterization of spermatogenesis genes.