PROVIDENCE – Researchers at Brown have shown how the loss of a specific gene in male mice causes the early end to the animals’ fertility.
The study coming out of the research was published in the journal Stem Cells.
The team found that the loss of the gene caused a deficit in the number of progenitor cells at an embryonic stage of a male mouse’s reproductive development. Lacking those important precursor cells prevented the mice from sustaining sperm production for the long term.
Sperm generation follows from a complex chain of events that begins before a male mouse is even born. Senior author of the study Richard Freiman said that understanding the genetic mutation among mice could potentially assist with human fertility treatments.
Among the possibilities: When the mutation is recognized in teenage boys it could allow doctors to freeze their sperm so that when they are older and wish to have children, they could still do so.
