Making babies without eggs may be possible, say scientists
By James Gallagher
Health and science reporter, BBC News website
They have succeeded in creating healthy baby mice by tricking sperm into believing they were fertilising normal eggs.
The findings in Nature Communications, could, in the distant future, mean women can be removed from the baby-making process, say the researchers.
For now, the work helps to explain some of the details of fertilisation.
End of mum and dad?
The University of Bath scientists started with an unfertilised egg in their experiments.
They used chemicals to trick it into becoming a pseudo-embryo.
These "fake" embryos share much in common with ordinary cells, such as skin cells, in the way they divide and control their DNA.
The researchers reasoned that if injecting sperm into mouse pseudo-embryos could produce healthy babies, then it might one day be possible to achieve a similar result in humans using cells that are not from eggs.
By James Gallagher
Health and science reporter, BBC News website
They have succeeded in creating healthy baby mice by tricking sperm into believing they were fertilising normal eggs.
The findings in Nature Communications, could, in the distant future, mean women can be removed from the baby-making process, say the researchers.
For now, the work helps to explain some of the details of fertilisation.
End of mum and dad?
The University of Bath scientists started with an unfertilised egg in their experiments.
They used chemicals to trick it into becoming a pseudo-embryo.
These "fake" embryos share much in common with ordinary cells, such as skin cells, in the way they divide and control their DNA.
The researchers reasoned that if injecting sperm into mouse pseudo-embryos could produce healthy babies, then it might one day be possible to achieve a similar result in humans using cells that are not from eggs.