A MAN has received the world's first sperm-making stem cell transplant in a groundbreaking experiment to reverse infertility.
The 26-year-old had been diagnosed with , a condition where no sperm is present in the , leaving him unable to father a child.
Azoospermia affects around one per cent of all men globally – or 500 men in every 50,000, according to research.
The often devastating condition is caused by , blockages in the reproductive tract, or .
In this case, the man's was caused by he received as a child to treat .
For this clinical trial, doctors from the US used the man’s own stem cells, which were harvested and frozen when he was younger, before his .
These sperm-forming stem cells, which are found in the testicles from birth, were reintroduced and transplanted into his reproductive system.
They did this by using an ultrasound to guide a small needle through the base of the scrotum into the rete testis, a part of the testicle.
This allowed doctors to either collect sperm or inject stem cells.
If the transplant succeeds, the patient should begin producing sperm.
While no sperm have yet been detected in his semen, medics have confirmed the procedure did not damage the man's testicular tissue.
The experts plan to monitor his semen twice a year to see if sperm cells begin to develop.
“If refined and proven safe, spermatogonial stem cell (SSC) transplantation could be a revolutionary fertility-restoring technique for men who've lost the ability to produce sperm,” Dr Justin Houman, an assistant professor of urology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, told LiveScience.
Until now, the procedure had only been tested in animals, where it successfully allowed male mice and monkeys to father offspring.
‘This is promising science'
This marks the first time it has been trialled on a human, with the findings published in a paper on the preprint servermedRxiv.
The researchers note that there’s a possibility the patient may never recover full fertility due to the small amount of stem cells collected as a child.
And if it does work, risks remain, particularly for cancer patients, as some transplanted stem cells might have genetic mutations that could lead to new tumours.
Dr Justin added, “We need to proceed cautiously and with rigorous oversight. This is promising science — but it’s still early days.”
