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Sperm Stem Cells Were Used for the First Time in an Attempt to Restore Fertility


In an advance for treating male infertility, researchers transplanted a patient with his own sperm-forming stem cells that were collected from testicular tissue when he was a child.

In the early stages of his cancer treatment, Hsu and his family traveled from their home in Maryland to UPMC Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh, where doctors collected a piece of testicular tissue containing the precious sperm stem cells. “If it works, those stem cells should regenerate spermatogenesis,” says Kyle Orwig, a professor of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive sciences at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and the senior author on the new study. “For these patients who get life-saving cancer therapies, they are very often left with permanently impaired fertility as a result,” says Robert Brannigan, president-elect of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine and professor of urology at Northwestern University.

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