Open AccessSyngenic grafting of a whole juvenile male gonadal tissue into the adult testes confers successful spermatogenesis in mice
Author(s) -
Norio Tada,
Fumio Kanai,
Eri Nakamura,
Hongmei Lu,
Masahiro Sato
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
asian pacific journal of reproduction
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.167
H-Index - 17
eISSN - 2305-0519
pISSN - 2305-0500
DOI - 10.1016/j.apjr.2016.06.007
Subject(s) - epididymis , spermatogenesis , biology , andrology , transgenesis , sperm , transplantation , testicle , tunica albuginea (penis) , transgene , anatomy , medicine , embryogenesis , microbiology and biotechnology , embryo , reproductive biology , endocrinology , gene , genetics , penis
Objective: To examine whether functional spermatozoa can be obtained when a whole male gonadal tissue (testes, epididymides, and fat) isolated from neonatal mice is grafted underneath adult mouse testes.Methods: Neonatal (1-day-old) male gonadal tissue, isolated from enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP)-transgenic (Tg) mice (C57BL/6-Tg(ACTB-EGFP)1Osb/J), was inserted deep in the testis of a non-Tg recipient mouse through a tunica albuginea incision. Two months after transplantation, the fluorescent grafted tissues were retrieved from recipient mice.Results: Histological analysis demonstrated that epididymal architecture was well developed and that spermatogenesis in the testis occurred in 30–60% of each seminiferous tubule of all the grafted tissues examined. Interestingly, motile spermatozoa could be successfully retrieved from the portion corresponding to the cauda epididymis in 1 of the 7 transplants obtained. These obtained spermatozoa had transgenes and could support embryonic development when intracytoplasmic sperm injection was performed using frozen-thawed spermatozoa.Conclusion: This present technique will be useful for study in various biological fields including the rescue of Tg lines with lethal postnatal phenotypes and cloned animals that die immediately after birth