02:27 PM ET 01/28/98

Scientist wants to use mice to grow human sperm

         
            LONDON (Reuters) - A leading expert on reproduction is
hoping to use mice to produce human sperm in a development that
could transform fertility treatment, New Scientist magazine said
Wednesday.
            Roger Short of the Royal Women's Hospital in Melbourne,
Australia, has already applied to the U.S. National Institute of
Health for funding. He has won approval from his local animal
research committee, but has not received the go-ahead or even
presented the project to any committee for human trials.
            ``The first time you say to anyone that we want to produce
human sperm in mice, they look at you with frank horror,'' he
told the magazine. He said he believed many people would
eventually accept the idea.

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Although the project is still a long way from approval, it
has already sparked safety concerns.
            Biologists are worried that human sperm developed in mice
might undergo genetic changes that could produce defects and
there is also concern that viruses from mice could infect the
sperm and be passed to humans.