Male Testicles Are Potential Fountain of Stem Cell Youth
By Brandon Keim September 20, 2007 | 1:10:17 PMCategories: Biotechnology, Stem Cell Research
Adult stem cells taken from testicles could be a source for everything from blood vessels and heart tissue to new brain cells, report Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers.
Unsurprisingly, the combination (stem cells + testes!) caught the attention of journalists. Australia's ABC News did a nice job of pointing out that the findings, made in mice, have a long way to go before helping people, and that women's ovaries might provide equally adaptable adult stem cells. Scientific American noted that similar findings were made earlier in the year, so at least this isn't a one-off.
The BBC hinted that men would be reluctant because extracting the cells would be "very painful," but didn't say how it's done; apparently it's like getting a biopsy, which I'd imagine is rather less painful than, say, heart disease or dementia. The New York Post covered it briefly -- mostly, I suspect, to let their headline writers have some fun. (The result: "New Ballgame for Stem Cells".)
But the best story might have come from the Globe and Mail. They gave some edifying but gruesome detail -- teeth and hair are sometimes found in testicular tumors, so these cells really can grow -- and didn't skimp over the fact that the researchers don't actually understand how their experiment worked.
None of the writers mentioned the poetic justice of men someday regenerating their whole bodies from their nuts, but I'm sure they all thought of it.
AI
