Stem cells shedding light on inherited disease, infertility

The results of the study, headed by Dr. Renee Riejo Pera of Stanford University in California, could lead to a better understanding of inherited diseases and infertility.

The cells that become eggs and sperm, germ cells, develop during the first trimester of pregnancy. Researchers have been unable to study this development takes place in utero.

This breakthrough means doctors can research genetic and environmental effects on fertility.

Dr. Kehkooi Kee, who works in Pera's lab, developed a way to isolate the germ cells from embryonic stem cells. To do this, a gene was added that makes green glowing proteins when germ cells are active.

Once the team was convinced they had germ cells, they began working with the DAZ, DAZL and BOULE genes. The DAZL gene was key in the transformation of embryonic stem cells into germ cells.

The DAZ and BOULE genes were important to meiosis, which gets cells to cut the number of chromosomes in half. Meiosis must take place before fertilization.

A major cause of infertility in humans is the production of low quality or too few germ cells. Pera thinks the system they've developed can be used to transform immature germ cells in infertile humans, pushing them into development.

Pera also hopes to use this process to study the causes of infertility. She plans to take cells from people with infertility problems, produce germ cells and study them.

The study, funded in part by the National Institutes of Health, appears in the journal Nature.

Written by Nicole Palmby