OREANDA-NEWS. Researchers from the University of Hiroshima found that using certain chemicals, it is possible to separate spermatozoa with an X chromosome (determines the female sex of the fetus) from those that carry the Y chromosome (determines the male gender), reports PLOS Biology.

 During spermatogenesis, haploid spermatozoa carrying either the X (female) or Y (male) chromosome are formed from diploid cells with a set of XY chromosomes.  The number of both is the same, therefore, in mammals in the offspring, males and females are usually approximately equally divided.  However, this ratio can be changed artificially, as is done in veterinary medicine.

 The revolutionary technology has already been tested in Japan, however, so far only on mice.  But in the future they are going to be used in artificial insemination procedures.  The community of doctors, however, advises at least not to rush and think about the ethics of this method.

 During the experiment, where rodent sperm was first treated with a resiquimod, then the upper part was defended and taken from it, at least 90% of the offspring turned out to be males.  At the same time, sperm cells were located in the lower part of sperm, of which 84% of experimental rodents gave birth to females.