“My two dads” is no longer just a lousy TV show. Using induced pluripotent stem cell technology (controversy-free!) scientists have produced male and female mice from two fathers.
It isn’t part of any cultural agenda, the intent was to preserve endangered species, but obviously it opens up the possibility of same-sex couples having their own genetic children. The authors caution that the “generation of human iPS cells still requires significant refinements prior to their use for therapeutic purposes.”
In the work reported today, the researchers manipulated fibroblasts from a male (XY) mouse fetus to produce an induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell line. About one percent of iPS cell colonies grown from this XY cell line spontaneously lost the Y chromosome, resulting in XO cells. The XO iPS cells were injected into blastocysts from donor female mice. The treated blastocysts were transplanted into surrogate mothers, which gave birth to female XO/XX chimeras having one X chromosome from the original male mouse fibroblast.
Full story: My Two Dads- Literally