研究：人造精子和卵子或将成为可能_BEC初级作文

研究：人造精子和卵子或将成为可能

British law prohibits fertility clinics in theUKfrom using artificial sperm and eggs to treat infertile couples. But if the law was revised, skin cells could potentially be taken from patients and turned into genetically identical sperm or eggs for use in IVF therapies.

英国法律禁止生育诊所使用人造精子和卵子对不孕不育夫妇进行治疗。但是如果对法律进行修订，就可以将病人的皮肤细胞转化为与其基因相同的生殖细胞，之后则采用试管婴儿疗法。

Skin cells from a woman could only be used to make eggs because they lack the Y chromosome. Those from a male might theoretically be turned into eggs as well as sperm, but Azim Surani, who led the work at the Gurdon Institute inCambridge, said that on the basis of current knowledge, that was unlikely.

理论上讲，由于女性皮肤细胞没有Y型染色体，只能用来制造卵子；而男性皮肤细胞既可以转换成卵子，又能成为精子。此次研究由剑桥大学古尔登研究所（the Gurdon Institute）的阿齐姆·苏伦尼（Azim Surani）领导。但他表示，在现有的医学基础上，这一想法还很难实现。

Researchers have made sperm and eggs from rodent stem cells before but have struggled do the same with human cells. In 2017, Japanese scientists created mouse eggs from stem cells and used them to make baby mice. Three years earlier, scientists atNewcastleUniversityclaimed to have made human sperm from stem cells, but their scientific paper was retracted amid allegations of plagiarism. In 2002, US researchers produced male and female mouse pups from male stem cells.