DAILY MAIL
A breakthrough in DNA research could lead to a reversible male contraceptive that works by causing temporary infertility.
Scientists have discovered a gene that is responsible for normal sperm production in humans and other mammals.
Blocking or deactivating it with drugs leads to a reduced sperm count, reduced movement and an abnormal shape, a new study has found.
But simply stopping the medication would allow the gene to reactivate and make the patient produce normal sperm again, experts suggest.
It comes as US Government-funded researchers edge closer to developing a functional male contraceptive pill.
A team from Washington State University used laboratory mice to see whether deactivating the Arrdc5 gene would affect their fertility.
Analysis revealed these mice produced 28 percent less sperm than their normal counterparts, and that the majority of this sperm was damaged and moved nearly three times slower.
Professor Jon Oatley, one of the study’s authors, said: ‘The study identifies this gene for the first time as being expressed only in testicular tissue, nowhere else in the body.
‘When this gene is inactivated or inhibited in males they make sperm that cannot fertilise an egg, and that’s a prime target…
