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May 28, 2010

Strange But True!

Q. From a Cleveland Heights, Ohio, reader: “Stem cells can apparently generate just about any tissue. Would it be possible to take a woman's stem cells and turn them into sperm, allowing her to impregnate herself?”

A. It is definitely an interesting possibility as a means of eliminating the need for males, but alas it is unlikely with current technology, says Cornell's Andrew Yen. There are major scientific efforts to find ways of redirecting differentiated cells to become pluripotent stem cells and the reverse, namely to direct stem cells specifically to form a desired differentiated cell type. More complicated than this is forming an organ. “Forming sperm in addition requires meiotic division to get from the diploid stem cell to the haploid sperm, a complication not yet conquered to my knowledge.”


 
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