Scientists Develop Male And Female Cells From Single Person

Scientists have created male and female cells with the same genetic code from the same person for the first time.

Photo Insert: Most people have two sex chromosomes, either two X chromosomes (XX) or an X chromosome and a Y chromosome (XY).

This unique set of cells could provide researchers with valuable insights into how sex chromosomes affect various diseases and their role in early development, Ayesha Gulzar reported for Interesting Engineering.

Most people have two sex chromosomes, either two X chromosomes (XX) or an X chromosome and a Y chromosome (XY). These sex chromosomes determine an individual's sex and are responsible for the development of female or male biological attributes.

Researchers have known that men and women are often affected differently by medical conditions and treatments. But when researchers try to document the differences, they often get stuck.

Now a research team led by Prof. Benjamin Reubinoff, director of the Swartz Stem Cell Research Center at the Goldyne Savad Institute of gene therapy, created male and female cells that are genetically identical except for their sex chromosomes.

This allows researchers to compare and contrast how these cells respond to medication or use them to model illness in a way that is free from the influences of other genetic or environmental factors.

To create the model, researchers obtained cells from the repositories of the Coriell Institute for Medical Research, where people donate samples for use in a wide range of biomedical research projects.

The cells came from a donor with Klinefelter syndrome, which is characterized by the presence of an extra X chromosome in their cells.

However, in this case, the donor had a rare "mosaic" form of Klinefelter syndrome, where there is a mix of cells with different numbers of sex chromosomes. In this condition, some cells contain three sex chromosomes (XXY), some contain two X chromosomes, and some have only one X and one Y chromosome.

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