Sperm from Skin? Almost!: Research Provides Looks Hopeful For Azoospermic Men

Posted on by Paul Turek, MD

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Can skin be turned into sperm? The answer is “yes” in mice and “almost

What’s the Buzz?

You know that I am obsessed with helping men who have no sperm become biological fathers. When FNA mapping yields no testicular sperm, I ask men to do what they have to do to keep moving forward… but to stay tuned to the research advance as well. Honestly, I consider our latest published research a significant “moment” in the sperm-from-no-sperm continuum. And, it hinges on the great potential of good ole’ stem cells.
Dr. Turek can help

Where’s the Beef?

In this study, we took tiny skin biopsies from generous patients who were deemed, by the latest and greatest techniques such as sperm mapping™, to have no testicular sperm. They also had good reason for their circumstance: each harbored a genetic issue called a Y chromosome microdeletion.
Then, using Nobel Prize proven technology, my collaborators at Stanford University cleverly converted these adult skin cells into stem cells. A cool, and now old-school technique in stem cell science. They then transplanted these adult stem cells into mouse testicles to see what they would do within a relatively natural and ready-made, “live” testicle. You see, stem cells like to “fit in” and typically respond to their environment or “niche” and develop into cells that suits their surroundings. When mouse stem cells are placed into mouse testicles, they develop into germ cells and, eventually, sperm. But, would human sperm develop in the mouse?
Putting human stem cells into mouse testicles, though, presents an unusual challenge. Because of obvious evolutionary divergence between mouse and man, human sperm have never been made in the mouse. So, we did not expect to see human sperm develop in this model. And we didn’t. But what we did find was both exciting and surprising:

  • Skin-derived stem cells from profoundly infertile men gave rise to early germ (sperm precursor) cells in mice, similar to cells from fertile men.
  • The degree to which infertile men made early germ cells in the mouse testicle was 5 to 10 times less efficient than that observed with fertile men.
  • Stem cells that missed the testicular tubules and were found outside of the correct “niche” developed into tumors at high rates. Not [one-third]

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