The problem of male infertility may shed light on a new discovery that plays a significant role in sperm development. Researchers at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute believe they have discovered that a defect in the gene may cause some cases of male infertility.
Howard Hughes' team noted that mice lacking the gene were infertile and produced only tiny amounts of abnormal sperm. That one of Britain's leading male fertility experts has expressed high hopes that the discovery could lead to some answers as to why there are men who are unable to father a child. Many of the reasons for male remain unclear to be fully understood.
Abnormally shaped sperm or a very low sperm that count are two reasons why some men are unable to father a child. Many research studies are looking at the genetic defects that are responsible for these conditions. A team of experts at Howard Hughes believed that the gene was essential for "spermatogenesis" which allows the DNA needed to create an embryo to be squeezed into a tight ball inside the sperm head, so it can break through the sperm's outer surface. Egg Spermatogenesis is the final stage of sperm maturation, when the cell builds its pseudopod, acquires the ability to crawl, and becomes capable of fertilizing an oocyte.
To see if the gene can affect sperm production, they experimented on mice and bred these animals without the gene. These mice were found to have unusually small testes, very low sperm counts, and were unable to produce offspring. They even noticed that not only did these mice have unusually small testicles, but the small number of sperm they produced had abnormally shaped heads and tails that were immobile. When the sperm was examined using staining techniques under a microscope, it became clear that the DNA was not properly packaged in the sperm head.
"Disturbances of this gene could be the cause of some cases of male infertility," said Dr. Yi Zhang, Howard Hughes team project leader. "Because this gene has a very specific effect on the development of functional sperm, it has great potential as a target for new fertility treatments that are unlikely to interfere with other functions in the body," he said.
Although the importance of the gene has already been demonstrated in mice, it is not certain that it will have the same effect in humans. The next big step for the team is to look at the DNA of infertile men to see if any of them are missing it.
According to Dr. For Allan Pacey, Is the associate professor of the andrology at the University of Sheffield and secretary of the British Fertility Society, the genes that control sperm which development were poorly understood. "The way sperm DNA is packaged into the sperm head is completely unique, and we know even less about it. It would be very useful to translate this research to human men and see if it can explain why some men simply don't produce healthy sperm and are therefore," he said.
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