Healthy offspring from freeze-dried mouse spermatozoa held on the International Space Station for 9 months

• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1701425114
• Publication Date: 2017-05-23T00:40:47Z
• Authors: Sayaka Wakayama; Yuko Kamada; Kaori Yamanaka; Takashi Kohda; Hiromi Suzuki; Toru Shimazu; Motoki N. Tada; Ikuko Osada; Aiko Nagamatsu; Satoshi Kamimura; Hiroaki Nagatomo; Eiji Mizutani; Fumitoshi Ishino; Sachiko Yano; Teruhiko Wakayama
• Keywords: Male; 0301 basic medicine; Litter Size; Reproductive Techniques, Assisted; Embryonic Development; Space Flight; Embryo Transfer; Spermatozoa; Mice; 03 medical and health sciences; Freeze Drying; Germ Cells; Oocytes; Animals; Female; Sperm Injections, Intracytoplasmic; DNA Damage

Significance Radiation on the International Space Station (ISS) is more than 100 times stronger than at the Earth’s surface, and at levels that can cause DNA damage in somatic cell nuclei. The damage to offspring caused by this irradiation in germ cells has not been examined, however. Here we preserved mouse spermatozoa on the ISS for 9 mo. Although sperm DNA was slightly damaged during space preservation, it could be repaired by the oocyte cytoplasm and did not impair the birth rate or normality of the offspring. Our results demonstrate that generating human or domestic animal offspring from space-preserved spermatozoa is a possibility, which should be useful when the “space age” arrives.