Babies without moms 'possible'

Motherless babies could be on the horizon after scientists discovered a method of creating offspring without the need for a female egg.

The landmark experiment by the University of Bath rewrites 200 years of biology teaching and could pave the way for a baby to be born from the DNA of two men.

It was always thought that only a female egg could spark the changes in a sperm required to make a baby, because an egg forms from a special kind of cell division in which just half the number of chromosomes are carried over.

Imagine that you could take skin cells and make embryos from them. This would have all kinds of utility.

Sperm cells form in the same way, so that when a sperm and egg meet they form a full genetic quota, with half our DNA coming from our mother and half from our father.

But now scientists have shown embryos could be created from cells that carry all their chromosomes, which means that, in theory, any cell in the human body could be fertilised by a sperm. Three generations of mice have already been created using the technique and are fit and healthy and now researchers are planning to test out the theory using skin cells.

Dr Tony Perry, a molecular embryologist and senior author of the study, said: "Some people say start the day with an egg, but what this paper says is that you don't necessarily have to start development with one.''

For the initial experiments, scientists ''tricked'' an egg into developing into an embryo using special chemicals that make the egg think it has been fertilised. Crucially, the cells in an embryo copy themselves completely when they divide, and so mirror closely most other cells in the body, such as skin cells. When scientists injected the embryos with sperm, they grew into healthy mice, which went on to produce their own litters.

Though the researchers began with an egg cell for the experiment, they do not believe it is required to spark the same development.