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NEW YORK -- In a step that may someday help lead to new treatments for infertility, scientists produced live mice by using sperm-like cells derived from embryonic stem cells.

Seven mice resulted from the work, six living long enough to reach adulthood. However, the animals were unusually small or large and died within five months of birth, apparently because they lacked normal controls over gene activity.

Still, the work establishes a method for learning more about how sperm is formed and perhaps for finding new treatments for male infertility, researchers said.

Scientists must learn more about the sperm production process "to get to the root of infertility," the study's lead author, Karim Nayernia of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in England, said in a statement.

Such knowledge could help scientists find a treatment for infertile men who can't produce mature sperm, although "this is several years down the line," he said.

The work is reported in this month's issue of the journal Developmental Cell.


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