- PM Modi visit USAOnly the mirror in my washroom and phone gallery see the crazy me : Sara KhanKarnataka rain fury: Photos of flooded streets, uprooted treesCannes 2022: Deepika Padukone stuns at the French Riviera in Sabyasachi outfitRanbir Kapoor And Alia Bhatt's Wedding Pics - Sealed With A KissOscars 2022: Every Academy Award WinnerShane Warne (1969-2022): Australian cricket legend's life in picturesPhotos: What Russia's invasion of Ukraine looks like on the groundLata Mangeshkar (1929-2022): A pictorial tribute to the 'Nightingale of India'PM Modi unveils 216-feet tall Statue of Equality in Hyderabad (PHOTOS)
Freya Deshmane riding on Reinroe Adare Acrobat claimed the top spot and clinched the gold
- Salah sets Premier League record in Liverpool's draw at Newcastle
- India Open Competition in Shotgun begins in Jaipur, paving way for Nationals' qualification
- Hockey India names Amir Ali-led 20-man team for Junior Asia Cup
- Harmanpreet Singh named FIH Player of the Year, PR Sreejesh gets best goalkeeper award
- World Boxing medallist Gaurav Bidhuri to flag off 'Delhi Against Drugs' movement on Nov 17
New technology may preserve fertility of boys with cancer Last Updated : 10 Apr 2017 01:47:33 PM IST File Photo
US scientists have found a promising way to preserve sperm stem cells that could enable boys to undergo cancer treatment without risking their fertility.
Adult men can have their sperm frozen before undergoing radiation or chemotherapy -- cancer treatment that can render sperm infertile.
But boys who have not been through puberty can only have sperm stem cells removed and frozen in anticipation of technology that could culture the cells and place them back in the testes, where they produce sperm after puberty.
"I think it's going to become the standard by which everybody cultures their cells, including trying to develop conditions for human cells," said Jon Oatley, Associate Professor at Washington State University.
For the study, published in the journal Stem Cell Reports, the team worked with prepubescent mouse pups and put a fluorescent tag on a gene specific to stem cells, which revealed the process of a stem cell differentiating to create the progenitors that eventually become sperm.
Initially, the stem cells creating energy through one method, called glycolysis, then switching to the second method, called oxidative phosphorylation, which produces free radicals -- reactive forms of oxygen that can be particularly harmful to a cell's DNA.
Thus, the team tried to change the culture environment to favour glycolysis.
By lowering the oxygen in the culture (that is by adding nitrogen to cut oxygen by more than half), the researchers found they could dramatically improve the percentage of stem cells capable of making normal sperm when put back into the testes.
Where before only five per cent of the cells remained viable after six months, now 40 per cent were viable, the researchers noted.
"We're getting an eight-fold improvement," Oatley added.IANS For Latest Updates Please-
Join us on
Follow us on
172.31.16.186