Israeli scientists from the Hebrew University of Hadassah have succeeded in obtaining male and female stem cells with the same genetic code from the same person. there was work published in Stem Cell Reports.
The X and Y sex chromosomes are responsible for the development of female or male biological traits. Males carry a set of XY chromosomes, while females carry XX. Therefore, treatments for genetic diseases often affect men and women differently.
The team of scientists succeeded in obtaining male and female cells that are genetically identical, except for the sex chromosomes. The geneticists used blood cells from a person with Klinefelter syndrome, a genetic syndrome in which a person has two X chromosomes and one Y chromosome (XXY). It is seen in 1-2 men in 1000 men.
“The blood cell donor for our study was unique and was one of the few patients in the world with Klinefelter’s disease whose blood also contained small subpopulations of normal male (XY) and female (XX) cells. We transformed the donor blood cells into induced pluripotent stem cells and genetically identical isolated cells. “Transformed stem cells can transform into any cell type and thus serve to develop cellular models to study sex differences in all cell types in the human body.”
The new discovery will allow researchers to compare the responses of these cells to drugs and use them to model diseases. However, they will not be affected by other genetic or environmental factors.
ancient scientists discovered Human sex change mechanism in genetic diseases.