Researchers are currently developing a technique for transplanting frozen testicular tissue to allow boys, rendered sterile by cancer treatment, to have children as adults.
Grady is not a baby monkey like the others: this young primate was born thanks to the transplantation of testicular tissue, taken from his father when he was young, and reimplanted in adulthood. The promising technique could prevent children with cancer from being sterile in adulthood. The results of this experiment, conducted at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, were published in the journal Science.
In vitro fertilization
Kyle Orwig, director of the research, and his team took testicular tissue from five monkeys who were not yet of reproductive age: their testicles were not yet producing sperm. All these samples were frozen until puberty of the primates. There they were grafted. Less than a year later, the tissues were producing testosterone and sperm again. Scientists used in vitro fertilization to create an embryo.
200 boys ready to benefit from this technique
Previously, scientists had already tested this technique on mice and pigs. Grady, born in April 2018, is under continuous observation for a long time, as researchers want to ensure that her development is normal before considering human development.
30% of boys treated for cancer will be sterile at puberty, it’s a side effect of chemotherapy. Thus, this method could allow them to have children in adulthood. Researchers have already anticipated this possibility: more than 200 boys being treated for cancer froze testicular tissue in 2011, in order to have this method available when it becomes available. According to Kyle Orwig, it could be within 5 years.
In a study published in @sciencemagazine Kyle Orwig,PhD, wrote how a team of researchers from the US and Canada produced the first monkey from cryopreserved testicular tissue. https://t.co/DoUZHuPMWT
— UPMC Physician Ed (@UPMCPhysicianEd) March 22, 2019
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