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Grow a pair: Lab-grown testicles tackle infertility treatment

Lab-grown testicle organoids that closely resemble the real thing provide a promising model for research that may help our understanding of testicular development and translate into therapeutic applications for male infertility.

Organoids, lab-grown 3D mini-organs derived predominantly from stem cells, have opened up new ways to model the organs they mimic, including research into disease states and the testing of therapeutic agents. Researchers at Bar-Ilan University, Israel, have changed that, growing testis (that’s the word for a single testicle) organoids from neonatal mouse cells that generate structures resembling real-life testes. The mice used in the study had been genetically engineered to allow the researchers to track the presence and state of Sertoli cells, which are essential for testis formation and sperm production and development (spermatogenesis).

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