Iranian Scientists Find Way for Treatment of Infertility in Cancerous Boys
“The spermatogonial stem cells of the testicular tissue (the cells responsible for producing sperm) in some teenage boys with cancer undergoing chemotherapy and radiotherapy are damaged, causing future fertility problems,” Leila Rashki, a biotechnology scientist at Royan Institute, told ANA.
She explained that the study was aimed at creating a method in the laboratory so that these people can once again obtain sperm cells and have children after cancer treatment.
“Testis cells, because they are powerful, make it possible to produce other organs such as liver and kidney, for this reason, in this research, we have used these cells as organ-like tissues to investigate the molecular mechanisms and drug treatments of that organ,” Rashki said.
In a relevant development in May, Iranian scientists at Royan Research Institute had also studied optimization of the egg freezing process with the help of magnetic field and nanoparticles with the aim of preserving the female sex cells as best as possible in infertile patients.
Improving egg freezing by using magnetic field and nanoparticles is the title of the project that Fatemeh Bani Assadi, a PhD student in the field of physics, solid state and condensed matter, from Shahid Beheshti University, completed in the form of her postdoctoral project at Royan Research Institute.
“In this method, due to the use of high concentration of antifreeze and short water extraction time, the water is quickly removed from the cell and the surrounding environment of the cell suddenly turns into glassy ice or amorphous ice. The reason for using these compounds is to keep the concentration of the solution constant during freezing. Despite the high concentration of these protectors, speeding up the cooling and heating of the sample reduces the problems,” Bani Assadi said.
“Unlike the slow freezing method, glass freezing does not require expensive tools, however, the use of high-concentration antifreezes has caused toxicity in this method. To deal with the problem of the toxicity of antifreezes in glass freezing and the formation of ice crystals in slow freezing, auxiliary and even alternative solutions should be sought,” she added.
Noting that to deal with the problems in freezing methods, the first suggestion is to use magnetic or electric fields, Bani Assadi said, “In the next step, iron oxide nanoparticles should be used.”
“Optimization of egg freezing process with the help of magnetic field and nanoparticles, optimal preservation of female sex cells by freezing method in infertile patients with the least amount of damage was one of the goals pursued in this project and fortunately, we were able to successfully conclude this research,” she stated.
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