Moreno Inmaculada, Míguez-Forjan Jose Manuel, Simón Carlos
Department of Research and Development, Igenomix S.L., Paternam, Spain.
Fundación Instituto Valenciano de Infertilidad (FIVI), Valencia, Spain.
Clin Exp Reprod Med. 2015 Jun;42(2):33-44. doi: 10.5653/cerm.2015.42.2.33. Epub 2015 Jun 30.
The generation of artificial gametes is a real challenge for the scientific community today. In vitro development of human eggs and sperm will pave the way for the understanding of the complex process of human gametogenesis and will provide with human gametes for the study of infertility and the onset of some inherited disorders. However, the great promise of artificial gametes resides in their future application on reproductive treatments for all these people wishing to have genetically related children and for which gamete donation is now their unique option of parenthood. This is the case of infertile patients devoid of suitable gametes, same sex couples, singles and those fertile couples in a high risk of transmitting serious diseases to their progeny. In the search of the best method to obtain artificial gametes, many researchers have successfully obtained human germ cell-like cells from stem cells at different stages of differentiation. In the near future, this field will evolve to new methods providing not only viable but also functional and safe artificial germ cells. These artificial sperm and eggs should be able to recapitulate all the genetic and epigenetic processes needed for the correct gametogenesis, fertilization and embryogenesis leading to the birth of a healthy and fertile newborn.
如今,人工配子的产生对科学界来说是一项真正的挑战。人类卵子和精子的体外发育将为理解人类配子发生的复杂过程铺平道路,并将为不育症研究和某些遗传性疾病的发病机制研究提供人类配子。然而,人工配子的巨大前景在于其未来在生殖治疗中的应用,适用于所有希望生育有基因关联子女且目前配子捐赠是其唯一为人父母选择的人群。这包括缺乏合适配子的不育患者、同性伴侣、单身人士以及那些有将严重疾病遗传给后代高风险的可育夫妇。在寻找获得人工配子的最佳方法的过程中,许多研究人员已成功从处于不同分化阶段的干细胞中获得了类人生殖细胞。在不久的将来,该领域将发展到新的方法,不仅能提供有活力的,还能提供功能性和安全性的人工生殖细胞。这些人工精子和卵子应能够重现正确的配子发生、受精和胚胎发生所需的所有遗传和表观遗传过程,从而孕育出健康且可育的新生儿。