Shandong scientists use the skin to create germ cells for the first time, the world's first case

Release date: 2016-04-29

Pulling a glimpse of a hair, you can become a group of little monkeys, this is a classic fragment of "Journey to the West." In the future, this skill may be mastered by humans. Recently, human skin-derived stem cells directed differentiation of embryos have been successfully studied in Shandong. By in vitro culture, human skin stem cells gain the potential to differentiate into germ cells, which is the first in the world. This also means that human stem cells can be cultured in vitro to differentiate into sperm and eggs, or can be used clinically to treat infertility in the future.

Skin-derived stem cells, successfully "transformed" germ cells

Recently, the laboratory of Qingdao Agricultural University successfully differentiated human skin-derived stem cells in vitro to obtain haploid germ cell-like cells. This research was led by Professor Shen Wei of Qingdao Agricultural University. He joined hands with the Chinese University of Science and Technology, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the University of Guelph in Canada and the Second University of Rome in Italy. It has been researched for 8 years. The relevant research results have been published in the Science Report. Published in International Science Journals such as Stem Cells and Development.

Shen Wei told reporters that there are many stem cells in the human body, as well as bone marrow. “Because the skin is fast in metabolism, it is simple and convenient to take, and taking stem cells from the skin is less harmful to humans.”

In the laboratory of Qingdao Agricultural University, the research team used skin-derived stem cells isolated and cultured in vitro to induce differentiation through conditioned medium containing specific inducing factors, allowing them to enter meiosis under in vitro conditions and form haploids. Germ cell-like cells.

During the eight years of the study, Shen Wei and the team also encountered many difficulties due to poor differentiation of adult stem cells. However, he did not introduce foreign genes into the cells, but tried to induce differentiation. After the first success, the research team did a lot of verification experiments. "By inducing direct differentiation, prospective parents will be more acceptable. If transplanted into other genes, the future may not be easily accepted by patients." Shen Wei said.

Wang Xiangyang, deputy director of the Department of Agriculture and Social Development of the Qingdao Municipal Science and Technology Bureau, said that the results mark the potential of human skin-derived stem cells to differentiate into germ cells under in vitro culture conditions.

Whether you can "create" success depends on the "quality" of germ cells.

If such research results can achieve sperm and egg reconstruction in the clinic, it will be a new hope for infertility patients.

According to the survey released by the National Population Association, there are more than 39 million infertile patients in China. At the same time, the world's infertile population has reached 10% of the family of childbearing age, and is on the rise. At present, the treatment techniques for infertility are based on the fact that the body itself can produce sperm or eggs, and for those prospective parents who cannot produce normal sperm or eggs by themselves due to problems such as ejaculation or premature ovarian failure, Human existing treatment techniques are often "love can help."

In 2006 and 2011, Canadian scientists have successfully achieved the use of porcine and mouse skin-derived stem cells to induce differentiation into oocyte-like cells, and there has been no report on the directed differentiation of human skin-derived stem cells. The success of this project is The international is still the first.

"We are still studying the production of germ cells using hair follicle stem cells from the roots of human hair." Shen Wei said that this is like Sun Wukong's removal of the root monkey hair into a small Sun Wukong in "Journey to the West". Next, he will continue the research to make the germ cells produced by these cultures truly fertile, and improve the differentiation efficiency of the cells, so that the research results can be transformed into clinical applications.

Rebuilding a small mouse has been successful in China

On February 25, 2016, Chinese scientists said that for the first time, they realized the differentiation of mouse embryonic stem cells in vitro and obtained functional sperm cells. This is considered an important advance in stem cell research.

The research was completed by Professor Sha Jiahao of Nanjing Medical University and Prof. Zhou Qi and Professor Zhao Xiaoyang (currently Southern Medical University) of the Institute of Zoology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The research paper was published in the new issue of Cell-Stem Cell. on.

Zhao Xiaoyang and others completely cultured functional sperm in an in vitro environment. They first differentiated embryonic stem cells into primordial germ cell-like cells, and then mixed them with mouse testicular somatic cells, and added cytokines and hormones that help sperm production, so that germ cells complete meiosis and differentiate in vitro. Functional sperm.

"Our research has for the first time realized the process of regenerating spermatogenesis completely in vitro, laying a theoretical foundation for the transformation of this technology into clinical applications." Zhao Xiaoyang told reporters that the results have been repeatedly verified in the research team within the project. With dozens of mouse offspring, these mice develop well and can normally breed the next generation.

Zhou Qi and Zhao Xiaoyang said that the next step is to improve the technology and try similar studies on other species such as primates to verify the safety, effectiveness and feasibility of the technology, including whether the offspring produced by this sperm There are cancer risks and so on.

Source: Qilu

Stone Skin Panel Security Door

Stone Skin Panel Security Door,Steel Exterior Security Doors,Steel Security Door,Stone Skin Security Door

Zhejiang Tilanco Industry&Trade Group Co., Ltd , https://www.tilancogroup.com