Infertility could become thing of past
On the eve of the 25th birthday of Louise Brown, the world’s first test tube baby, Professor Alan Trounson predicted infertility in the future may not be the problem it is today.
“I am certain that in the long term we will be able to help everyone,” he told a news conference. About three out of every four couples facing infertility can benefit from current treatments. Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), in which a single sperm is injected into the egg, has enabled infertile men to have children and embryonic screening and other techniques have improved success rates.
Helping men who produce no sperm and women without eggs will be the remaining challenge, but stem cells, which are able to grow into all cells and tissues in the body, could be the answer. “In future we’ll be able to take cells and reconstruct the equivalent of sperm and eggs,” said Trounson, of Australia’s Monash Institute of Reproduction and Development. “It is theoretically possible,” he added. But although animal experiments have shown promise, Trounson said it would take at least 10 years or more and need much more basic research first. Stem cells hold the promise of treating a range of medical conditions, but their use is controversial because although they are found in adult tissue, the most flexible stem cells come from early embryos left over from In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) fertility treatment.
