Artificial sperm breakthrough raises fertility hopes

ARTIFICIAL sperm has been created in a laboratory and used to fertilise eggs, it was revealed yesterday.

The breakthrough could pave the way to new infertility treatments and also shed light on birth defects, say scientists.

Researchers in America grew the mouse sperm from stem cells the body's "master" cells that can be coaxed to form different kinds of tissue. Although they were not fully-fledged sperm, lacking tails, they triggered fertilisation when injected into mouse eggs.