25th August 2014 | by MFC Team
Synthetic sperm?: A new treatment for male fertility
A new study may hold the key to the development of a synthetic protein, which could help diagnose and treat male infertility related to poor sperm quality – a problem in 30% to 40% of all cases of infertility.
Researchers from Queen’s University in Canada have identified a protein that is required to “kick start” the fertilization process. They believe that they can develop a synthetic version of the protein called “PAWP” in cases of male factor infertility when there are problems with the sperm bonding to the egg to create an embryo.
Dr. Richard Oka, lead researcher on the study believes that supplementation of human sperm with the PAWP protein may increase the success rates of fertility treatments because:
“PAWP is able to induce embryo development in human eggs in a fashion similar to the natural triggering of embryo development by the sperm cell during fertilization.”
While the creation and use of a synthetic PAWP protein to treat male factor infertility is still in its infancy, early research results are promising.
Read more here.
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