Reproduction does not need sex

Since the first child in the world was born from a test tube in 1978 in the UK, legal and religious regulations in Western countries have minimized new research in the field of reproductive support. . It is this prohibition that is the perfect environment for bold breakthrough ideas - or risk - in science and medicine.

Scientists try to use micro-learning to perform the most important step in the IVF process: giving eggs and sperm a harmonious dance routine!

There is no longer a need to meet rigorous government controls and support from patients who aspire to have children, many doctors specialized in in vitro fertilization (in vitro fertilization - IVF) have turned their hospitals. I became the research center. The result is a series of innovative techniques that have emerged over the past three decades, opening up new frontiers for reproductive science.

The children are designed

The concept of 'designed babies' (designer babies) was born after the success of IVF technology as a prediction of the future of reproduction, but then became a topic of jokes. a cup of beer. In fact, it is no longer a dead end. The babies were designed and born!

Experts are taking sperm samples from frozen storage

In the US alone, more than 1,000 children have been selected since they were embryos by preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD). With this technique, a cell will be taken from the embryo to analyze if the chromosomes or genes are normal. Families have asked doctors to use PGD to eliminate genetic pathogens to create an immune-compatible child for their siblings who need to donate blood or marrow. PGD ​​is also used in more controversial cases: pre-selection of the sex of the future child.

But the term 'designed babies' can be understood in a completely technological sense! Since 2001, a research team under Ralph Brinster of the University of Pennsylvania (USA) has successfully cultured mouse stem sperm cells. Sperm stem cells (spermatagonial stem cells - SSC) are the type of cells that will later develop into sperm.

The sperm samples are frozen for storage before giving artificial insemination.

During the experiment, Brinster and his colleagues changed the genetic program of SSCs. Because these are sex cells, any changes made by scientists in the gene will be passed on from generation to generation. This is the change of lineage and is a limit that the vast majority of bioethics agree that should not be overcome. The ability to select a preeminent strain by genetic technology will help the fascist specter to live up to the grave! So in theory, this technology could pave the way to creating sperm for infertile men - a great achievement that will surely be welcomed by many. However, scientists must also be able to change sperm genes so that the next generation will maintain that change.

Ralph Brinster said: 'SSC provides another way to adjust the animal breeds'. Changing cell culture nutrient solutions may also alter genetic characteristics. Similar mechanisms in other species can also apply SSC techniques - including humans. Brinster just wanted to use this technique as a therapy or a new research tool to create lab animals. But we don't need to take a lot of beer to imagine countless other possibilities for SSC.

Ovaries removed

Advances in science can completely upset the familiar thoughts of the birth of a person.

In the July 7, 2005 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Sherman Silber - an IVF expert - claims to have transplanted ovarian tissue from a female to a twin sister who was born infertility due to her baby. suffered chemotherapy to cure cancer. After the transplant, the child became pregnant and gave birth to a healthy baby. Because ovarian tissue is taken from a twin sister, the genetically child is the brother's child.

Of course the drawback is that not everyone has a twin sister waiting. And Silber's technique uses low-scale ovarian tissue strips because of the potential for problems during tissue collection, storage, and transplantation on the recipient. But just two months after Silber announced the results, Israeli scientists at Tel Aviv Animal Science Institute announced they had implanted intact ovaries from sheep to sheep. After transplants, the ovaries are still functioning normally and the eggs produced from them become embryos.

The sperm in front of the start of the technology race.

Israeli scientists believe that implanted ovaries have immediate and long-term recovery of hormones as well as possible normal ovulation after freezing (cryopreservation). If this technique is also effective for humans, women can remove the ovaries so that before cancer treatment, check whether the ovaries show cancer cells and then store them in the 'refrigerator'. When will the healing treatment be reassembled!

But female doctor Marcelle Cedars at San Francisco Reproductive Health Center, California (USA) and many other experts said that frozen eggs is a better solution. Although she thought that the technology of freezing eggs was incomplete, she believed that the technology was progressing rapidly and was capable of replacing the way ovary tissue was preserved. If so, then the last egg freezing technique itself will be replaced by more advanced technologies.

Industrial eggs and sperm

The technique of freezing eggs is incomplete but is progressing rapidly and has the ability to completely replace how to preserve ovary tissue

One of the most common causes of infertility is that men are diluted or have no sperm, while women produce unfertilized eggs. This is common in older women or cancer patients. So in the past 6 years, scientists have been trying to run around fiddling eggs and blind-eyed sperm.

At the same time, research groups in France, Britain, the United States and Japan sought to convert human cells into egg cells. The biggest obstacle is that normal cells have enough chromosome components (diploid). To be able to reproduce, a cell must get rid of half of the chromosomes and become haploid to receive half of the remaining chromosomes from sperm that form a new organism. So scientists are searching for artificial haploidization methods.

The concept of 'designed babies' is born after the success of IVF technology as a forecast of how the future of reproduction

In 2001, Dr. Gianpiero Palermo of Cornell University (New York) announced that his team had created haploid eggs with the techniques of cloning technology. The scientists took the nucleus of an egg that was donated to an adult human cell and cloned into many new eggs. After they fertilized these regenerated eggs, 52% had normal fertilization.

But at some point on the path of development, the chromosomes of 'industrial eggs' become disordered. Palermo's team searched for no reason. By 2005, this group changed tactics. They took human embryonic stem cells into eggs. During the annual meeting of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine held in November 2005, the group reported that when the new method was used, the cells would become mono- mono and become… sperm. Combining both methods, they not only produced the blastocyst, but the new embryos also produced the second generation of human embryonic stem cells.

Palermo suggested that this "therapeutic cloning" technique could be used to produce orders of all kinds of eggs and sperm for infertile people. An independent research group at the University of Sheffield (UK) also found a similar method. Experts predict that within 5 years, this method will be completed and started to be widely applied.

Babies born from chips

A series of innovative techniques have emerged, opening new frontiers for reproductive science

Microbiology (microfluidics) is a new scientific discipline that combines physics, chemistry, biology and industrial engineering to study the flow properties of extremely small quantities of liquids or gases. To study, microcontrollers use microscopic trenches etched on silicon surfaces to manipulate through an amplified microscope. Over the years, scientists have tried to use micro-learning to perform the most important step in the IVF process: giving eggs and sperms in harmony with the love dance!

In late 2005, a team at the University of Michigan (USA) tried using IVF technology on rats with micro-devices and discovered that in many cases, this proved to be more effective. is to put eggs and sperm into the same dishes in the laboratory. Gary D. Smith, the lead researcher, believes that this new technology will be the future IVF standard. He explained: 'Using micro-devices will eliminate the chance of accidentally putting sperm into eggs'. This technique has not yet been optimized, but according to Smith in about a year, it is possible to experiment on humans.

Most IVF researchers and doctors do not pursue mysterious methods. They only focus on improving existing technologies because they need to meet the needs of patients as quickly as possible. Finding new ways to use popular drugs in combination with testing media is the way they often use. But those seemingly small changes can completely upset the familiar thoughts of the birth of a person. If babies can be born with electronic circuits, do people need sex to reproduce?

Tran Ngoc Dang