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Sperm have been made from monkey stem cells and used to fertilise a macaque egg in a scientific breakthrough that could lead to human infertility treatments.
Researchers took some stem cells, converted them into primitive sperm and showed this was capable of fertlising an egg from a rhesus macaque.
The monkeys share similar reproductive mechanisms to humans, making them an 'ideal and necessary model for exploring stem cell-based therapies for male infertility,' experts at the University of Georgia (UGA) said.
It comes fives years after scientists were able to create sperm in a laboratory and use it to father healthy baby mice in another pioneering move.
The hope is that the research could one day pave the way to help men with defects that leave them unable to produce sperm, as well as those whose fertility has been damaged by cancer treatment or infections such as mumps.
Breakthrough: Sperm have been made from monkey stem cells and used to fertilise a macaque egg in a scientific breakthrough that could lead to human infertility treatments (stock image)
Making sperm in the testes, which takes more than a month from start to finish in most mammals, is one of the longest and most complicated processes in the body.
The UGA-led study is the
