Researchers at Kyoto University have succeeded in producing fertile offspring from sterile mice with chromosome abnormality by using iPS cells, the university said Friday.

The research outcome by the international team was published online by the U.S. magazine Science with the headline "Fertile offspring from sterile sex chromosome trisomic mice."

The team intentionally produced sterile trisomic mice and showed that fibroblasts from the abnormal mice lose the extra sex chromosome during reprogramming to induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells.

The team termed the phenomenon trisomy-biased chromosome loss.

It is vital to have the correct number of chromosomes for normal development and health.

The researchers have successfully produced fertile offspring with a usual pair of sex chromosome by injecting functional sperm originated from the euploid iPS cells into eggs.

"(The finding) could lead to the development of treatment for infertility caused by chromosome or other genetic abnormalities," said Michinori Saito, a professor of the Graduate School of Medicine at Kyoto University and a research team member.

The team also involves James Turner of the Francis Crick Institute in Britain.

Sex chromosome trisomy, associated with infertility, affects 0.1 percent of the human population, according to the research team.

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Fertile offspring produced from sterile mice using iPS cells - Kyodo News Plus