Embryonic stem cells become germ cells

STANFORD, Calif., Oct. 28 (UPI) -- Stanford University researchers say they've discovered how to transform human embryonic stem cells into germ cells.

The study, funded in part by the National Institutes of Health, allows scientists to observe germ cells -- the cells that eventually produce sperm and eggs -- that were previously inaccessible.

"This achievement opens a new window into what was only recently a hidden stage of human development," said Dr. Susan Shurin, acting director of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. "Laboratory observation of human germ cells has the potential to yield important clues to the origins of unexplained infertility and to the genesis of many birth defects and chromosomal disorders."

The study conducted by Kehkooi Kee, Vanessa Angeles, Martha Flores, Ha Nam Nguyen and Renee Reijo Pera, all of Stanford University School of Medicine appears in the early online edition of the journal Nature.