It’s a fact that when sperm and egg meet, life can begin. But what if two eggs meet, or two sperm cells? Can life still come from this?
The answer is yes. Scientists have already shown it’s possible to create life from two biological mothers or fathers, reports Videnskab.
Although this has been done with mice, it’s a breakthrough showing that offspring can be created without the involvement of the opposite sex.
Now, researchers have taken it even further. For the first time, a Chinese team of stem cell scientists has created mice with two fathers.
These mice are so viable that one even grew to adulthood.
Joshua Brickman, a professor at the University of Copenhagen, reacted with enthusiasm. He wasn’t involved in the study, but he finds it fascinating.
He points out that what’s new in this study is that the mice are not only surviving birth but living beyond it.
Previously, it was a major scientific achievement when mice were created from parents of the same sex.
This time, however, the new success shows that certain genes are crucial to producing viable offspring from same-sex parents.
The breakthrough comes from overcoming a major barrier—these offspring need "imprinted genes."
Imprinted genes are necessary for creating a mouse pup, or even a human child. These genes traditionally come from both a mother and a father, but that wasn’t possible with same-sex parents.
Researchers have now managed to change these genes in a way that makes it possible for two fathers to create viable offspring.
In past studies, these scientists managed to alter imprinted genes seven times in male mice, making them resemble a female’s genome.
However, the offspring often died shortly after birth. This time, they went further, changing 20 key genes, and also succeeded in getting sperm cells from male mice to develop into egg-like cells.
These altered cells were placed in female mice, and the result was that two father mice had viable offspring. One of these mice even reached adulthood, an extraordinary achievement.
While the research is impressive, many challenges remain. Only 11.8% of the embryos were viable at birth, and most suffered from development issues.
Only one mouse survived to adulthood, and all were sterile. The scientists themselves acknowledge the limits of their work.
They believe the key challenge lies in imprinted genes, which have long been thought to be a major barrier for same-sex reproduction in mammals.
However, their findings show that this barrier can be overcome.
This breakthrough offers hope for advancements in stem cell and regenerative medicine.
However, despite the progress, the possibility of applying this to humans is still far from realistic.
There are significant technical and ethical concerns. Even the researchers agree that we are not yet near a point where two people of the same sex could have biological children without genetic input from the opposite sex.
In the future, perhaps we might see two women able to have a biological child together.
But for now, the technology is far from being ready to move beyond mice to humans.
