Iranian Scientists Making Efforts to Protect Valuable Animal Species
In addition to preserving genetic resources, this technology provides a basis for future research and animal cloning plans.
“In a bid to preserve valuable animal species and create an infrastructure for future research, the Human and Animal Cell Bank of the National Center for Genetic and Biological Resources of Iran has taken steps to store tissue, cell, and animal DNA samples. In addition to protecting biodiversity, this technology will play a key role in animal research and cloning programs in the coming years,” said Maryam Farqdan, the director of the Human and Animal Cell Bank.
“Using advanced biotechnology techniques, this bank extracts fibroblast cells from living animal tissue and maintains them under standard conditions. These valuable samples could be used in the future for genetic studies, the revival of rare breeds, and even the cloning of endangered or lost species. Storing these biological samples in liquid nitrogen tanks is a strategic measure to preserve the genetic information of animals,” she added.
In a relevant development in September, researchers at Iranian Research Organization for Science and Technology (IROST) had also acquired a new method for sex manipulation to predetermine the sex of animal offspring using microfluidic systems to separate cells.
“The ability to predetermine the sex of livestock by separating sperm with X and Y chromosomes is very important for the animal breeding industry. This capability is especially imporntant for milk production, and in males for meat production and increasing the number of animals. So far, efforts have been made to separate X- and Y-bearing sperm using different techniques based on sperm volume and motility, swimming patterns, sperm surface manipulation, and relevant immunological properties. However, many of these methods are unable to make meaningful separations or cannot be repeated,” the IROST chairman Hassan Zamanian, who is also deputy of the Iranian minister of science said.
“Separating X- and Y-bearing sperm is done commercially for cattle (cows) in several countries. The method used is flow cytometry technique and its accuracy is more than 90%. This method reduces the fertility potential of the separated cells due to the 20% increase in dead or damaged sperm cells as a result of the induction of hydrodynamic stress during the separation process, incubation with fluorescent dye, and the steps of cooling and keeping at low temperatures before insemination. Moreover, the reduction in the yield of separated spermatozoa to about two million sperm per dose compared to doses of unsorted semen, which usually have a concentration of about 20 million sperm cells, is the prime reason that this method in animal offspring is used in a limited manner,” he added.
“Recently, with the progress in the field of microfluidics, it has been used for sperm separation. Microfluidic systems can be suitable for separating sperm due to the characteristics of sperm cells in microchannels. These characteristics of sperm in microchannels have made sperm separation with microfluidic systems very similar to in vivo conditions. Sperm movement and behavior characteristics such as movement close to the surface of the microchannel, sperm movement against the direction of fluid flow, chemotaxis response, etc. have led to the inspiration of these cases to provide conditions for sperm separation in microfluidic systems,” he went on to say.
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