10 ms·

Finally, a possible solution to mouse infertility! I dream of a day when we can apply similar technology to humans and restore our dwindling population.

nsxwolf 9y ago
This is pretty insensitive. There's a lot of women that would love to have this technology available instead IVF or other options.
- delecti 9y ago
  Or transgender men and women who would love a natural source of hormones instead of being resigned to pills or regular injections for the rest of their lives.
  - nsxwolf 9y ago
    Along those lines it seems like an artificial pancreas could be made in a similar fashion and end Type 1 diabetes.
    - wayn3 9y ago
      An artificial pancreas can solve a lot more problems than just type 1 diabetes :)
    - defined 9y ago
      Although this also would be a huge boon for Type 2 diabetics like me, I thought that the pancreas generated insulin from the Islets of Langerhans (or something like that - IANAB), which sounds a lot more complex to replicate than a scaffolding to support egg precursors - but this may just be my ignorance. Is there any progress in this regard that you could point me to?
      - nanofortnight 9y ago
        Pancreatic islet transplantation is already a thing. Islets are isolated and are introduced into the portal circulation. They embed themselves into the liver. This is normally only done in patients with brittle diabetes because of the need for immunosuppression. This is a less complex procedure than a full pancreas transplant.
        defined 9y ago
        Thanks, that's informative. It doesn't seem like a 3D printing application, though, am I right?
  - AnkhMorporkian 9y ago
    I'm not sure if that's a realistic hope. IANAB, but FtM individuals don't have a Y chromosome to work with, so I don't see how they could get the genetic coding to make testes work. You could use a biological male's DNA, but then you're trading hormones for anti-rejection pills.
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
    - lotyrin 9y ago
      I wonder how immunologically different the proteins on an artificial testicle that had the host's DNA aside from a single close-relative donor Y chromosome would be.
    - delecti 9y ago
      I believe there's only one gene on the Y chromosome that really kicks off "maleness", the SRY gene, and it doesn't code for "testicles". The SRY gene just kicks off another process, the genes for which are present in everybody. I think there would still be a few steps left to create the seed cells, but that would be the case in trans women as well, as it seems the mouse pseudo-ovaries were seeded with the mice's harvested eggs. I think there are genes on the Y chromosome which code for sperm cells, so trans men wouldn't be fertile with one of these testicle-chips, but even getting an endogenous source of hormones would be awesome. Also, I'm not sure what "IANAB" means. I am not a "?"
      - crowbahr 9y ago
        Biologist I think.
      - AnkhMorporkian 9y ago
        IANAB = I am not a biologist. I know there's SRY, and that does kick things off, but I also know there's a disorder where SRY translocates to the X chromosome. It causes otherwise XX individuals to develop as a male, but they don't produce testosterone and they require augmentation. That makes me believe that the testosterone producing genes are probably on the Y chromosome as well.
- asciimo 9y ago
  I understand that perspective, but the #1 threat to our habitat is more inhabitants. It's hard to celebrate investing in a longshot technology that will ultimately exacerbate our problems. An individual's desires have to take a backseat sometimes.
  - nsxwolf 9y ago
    No they don't.
  - qb45 9y ago
    I think only Eastern Asia really has this problem at the moment while some areas have the opposite.
    - hhw 9y ago
      Did you mean South Asia? China has gotten to the point where they are able to lift the one child per family policy, after seeing that it made very little difference when they previously relaxed the policy in cases where both parents were only children. Meanwhile, Japan has to resort to advertising and public service announcements to encourage young people to date due to their low birth rates and declining population.
  - michaelchisari 9y ago
    A wider choice in family planning has never shown to result in overpopulation. Overpopulation is almost always a result of the opposite.
gpvos 9y ago
Did you actually read the article? They are already thinking about applying it to humans. This kind of thing is almost always first tried in mice or other animals. Also, the dwindling of our population is mostly due to societal changes like people wanting fewer children on average, or not finding a partner. Infertility is not the major problem, if you even want to call it a problem at society level (personally, it can very well be, of course).
- asciimo 9y ago
  I'm sorry, I was being sarcastic. (Rather irresponsible here, where it's justifiably uncommon.) Part of my sarcasm stems from the fact that non-human models very often do not translate well to human models, yet people are happy to celebrate health victories in those species. So I always think it's funny to celebrate any victory in the non-human model as though it were the goal. "E.g., cancer cured in rats! Finally! Those poor rats suffer so much." (Which brings up another issue about the actual suffering that animals endure for our immortality...) Regarding dwindling population, that was sarcastic too; while human population growth has subsided in some areas, there's still a net explosion of humans on this planet. So that makes advances in fertility seem absurd when looking at the big picture. Finally, for those of us who believe that humans are responsible for many of the ills we're seeing in our habitat, a logical conclusion is that more humans equals more problems.
  - dragonwriter 9y ago
    > Regarding dwindling population, that was sarcastic too; while human population growth has subsided in some areas, there's still a net explosion of humans on this planet. A declining growth rate (as we've had since the peak in the 1960s) is not a "net explosion".
  - gpvos 9y ago
    I could tell that you were being sarcastic, but to me it looked like a typical response from someone who had only read the headline and didn't bother to click through and read at least some paragraphs from the article. (That's also why I was a bit more condescending than usual.)
throwaway859 9y ago
> I dream of a day when we can apply similar technology to humans and restore our dwindling population. Though your comment was clearly meant to be ironic, "our population" is dwindling--unless you're one of those foolish science deniers who still subscribes to Gould's discredited religion of blank-slatism and thus views Europeans and Africans as interchangeable. In light of our plummeting birth rates and the rising prevalence of advanced maternal age, any advances of this nature should be applauded.
- ue_ 9y ago
  >who still subscribes to Gould's discredited religion of blank-slatism and thus views Europeans and Africans as interchangeable. Can you explain what you mean by this, please? I'm rather unfamiliar with Gould, or what you're trying to say here.
  - throwaway859 9y ago
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1lEPQYQk8s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1lEPQYQk8s
Jyalm 9y ago
Although it may sound cold to some, the truth is that people don't consider the global population count in regards to their concerns about growth. Population growth is usually something one considers in regards to their own country, and within that country it's not uncommon to consider one's own demographic groups primarily. As an example, I highly doubt a Japanese person concerned about birth rates is concerned about the boom in Africa and other distant nations. Japan's population is going to decline drastically in the coming years, and they don't want lots of immigration to make up for it. It won't surprise me if they do something weird eventually, like the state paying women to have children the state itself would raise. Technology like this could open up even more strange doors.

nsxwolf 9y ago

This is pretty insensitive. There's a lot of women that would love to have this technology available instead IVF or other options.

delecti 9y ago
Or transgender men and women who would love a natural source of hormones instead of being resigned to pills or regular injections for the rest of their lives.
- nsxwolf 9y ago
  Along those lines it seems like an artificial pancreas could be made in a similar fashion and end Type 1 diabetes.
  - wayn3 9y ago
    An artificial pancreas can solve a lot more problems than just type 1 diabetes :)
  - defined 9y ago
    Although this also would be a huge boon for Type 2 diabetics like me, I thought that the pancreas generated insulin from the Islets of Langerhans (or something like that - IANAB), which sounds a lot more complex to replicate than a scaffolding to support egg precursors - but this may just be my ignorance. Is there any progress in this regard that you could point me to?
    - nanofortnight 9y ago
      Pancreatic islet transplantation is already a thing. Islets are isolated and are introduced into the portal circulation. They embed themselves into the liver. This is normally only done in patients with brittle diabetes because of the need for immunosuppression. This is a less complex procedure than a full pancreas transplant.
      - defined 9y ago
        Thanks, that's informative. It doesn't seem like a 3D printing application, though, am I right?
- AnkhMorporkian 9y ago
  I'm not sure if that's a realistic hope. IANAB, but FtM individuals don't have a Y chromosome to work with, so I don't see how they could get the genetic coding to make testes work. You could use a biological male's DNA, but then you're trading hormones for anti-rejection pills.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - lotyrin 9y ago
    I wonder how immunologically different the proteins on an artificial testicle that had the host's DNA aside from a single close-relative donor Y chromosome would be.
  - delecti 9y ago
    I believe there's only one gene on the Y chromosome that really kicks off "maleness", the SRY gene, and it doesn't code for "testicles". The SRY gene just kicks off another process, the genes for which are present in everybody. I think there would still be a few steps left to create the seed cells, but that would be the case in trans women as well, as it seems the mouse pseudo-ovaries were seeded with the mice's harvested eggs. I think there are genes on the Y chromosome which code for sperm cells, so trans men wouldn't be fertile with one of these testicle-chips, but even getting an endogenous source of hormones would be awesome. Also, I'm not sure what "IANAB" means. I am not a "?"
    - crowbahr 9y ago
      Biologist I think.
    - AnkhMorporkian 9y ago
      IANAB = I am not a biologist. I know there's SRY, and that does kick things off, but I also know there's a disorder where SRY translocates to the X chromosome. It causes otherwise XX individuals to develop as a male, but they don't produce testosterone and they require augmentation. That makes me believe that the testosterone producing genes are probably on the Y chromosome as well.
asciimo 9y ago
I understand that perspective, but the #1 threat to our habitat is more inhabitants. It's hard to celebrate investing in a longshot technology that will ultimately exacerbate our problems. An individual's desires have to take a backseat sometimes.
- nsxwolf 9y ago
  No they don't.
- qb45 9y ago
  I think only Eastern Asia really has this problem at the moment while some areas have the opposite.
  - hhw 9y ago
    Did you mean South Asia? China has gotten to the point where they are able to lift the one child per family policy, after seeing that it made very little difference when they previously relaxed the policy in cases where both parents were only children. Meanwhile, Japan has to resort to advertising and public service announcements to encourage young people to date due to their low birth rates and declining population.
- michaelchisari 9y ago
  A wider choice in family planning has never shown to result in overpopulation. Overpopulation is almost always a result of the opposite.

gpvos 9y ago

Did you actually read the article? They are already thinking about applying it to humans. This kind of thing is almost always first tried in mice or other animals. Also, the dwindling of our population is mostly due to societal changes like people wanting fewer children on average, or not finding a partner. Infertility is not the major problem, if you even want to call it a problem at society level (personally, it can very well be, of course).

asciimo 9y ago
I'm sorry, I was being sarcastic. (Rather irresponsible here, where it's justifiably uncommon.) Part of my sarcasm stems from the fact that non-human models very often do not translate well to human models, yet people are happy to celebrate health victories in those species. So I always think it's funny to celebrate any victory in the non-human model as though it were the goal. "E.g., cancer cured in rats! Finally! Those poor rats suffer so much." (Which brings up another issue about the actual suffering that animals endure for our immortality...) Regarding dwindling population, that was sarcastic too; while human population growth has subsided in some areas, there's still a net explosion of humans on this planet. So that makes advances in fertility seem absurd when looking at the big picture. Finally, for those of us who believe that humans are responsible for many of the ills we're seeing in our habitat, a logical conclusion is that more humans equals more problems.
- dragonwriter 9y ago
  > Regarding dwindling population, that was sarcastic too; while human population growth has subsided in some areas, there's still a net explosion of humans on this planet. A declining growth rate (as we've had since the peak in the 1960s) is not a "net explosion".
- gpvos 9y ago
  I could tell that you were being sarcastic, but to me it looked like a typical response from someone who had only read the headline and didn't bother to click through and read at least some paragraphs from the article. (That's also why I was a bit more condescending than usual.)

throwaway859 9y ago

> I dream of a day when we can apply similar technology to humans and restore our dwindling population. Though your comment was clearly meant to be ironic, "our population" is dwindling--unless you're one of those foolish science deniers who still subscribes to Gould's discredited religion of blank-slatism and thus views Europeans and Africans as interchangeable. In light of our plummeting birth rates and the rising prevalence of advanced maternal age, any advances of this nature should be applauded.

ue_ 9y ago
>who still subscribes to Gould's discredited religion of blank-slatism and thus views Europeans and Africans as interchangeable. Can you explain what you mean by this, please? I'm rather unfamiliar with Gould, or what you're trying to say here.
- throwaway859 9y ago
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1lEPQYQk8s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1lEPQYQk8s

Jyalm 9y ago

Although it may sound cold to some, the truth is that people don't consider the global population count in regards to their concerns about growth. Population growth is usually something one considers in regards to their own country, and within that country it's not uncommon to consider one's own demographic groups primarily. As an example, I highly doubt a Japanese person concerned about birth rates is concerned about the boom in Africa and other distant nations. Japan's population is going to decline drastically in the coming years, and they don't want lots of immigration to make up for it. It won't surprise me if they do something weird eventually, like the state paying women to have children the state itself would raise. Technology like this could open up even more strange doors.