Premium
Spermatogonial transplantation and reconstitution of donor cell spermatogenesis in recipient mice
Author(s) -
NAGANO M.,
BRINSTER R. L.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
apmis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.909
H-Index - 88
eISSN - 1600-0463
pISSN - 0903-4641
DOI - 10.1111/j.1699-0463.1998.tb01318.x
Subject(s) - spermatogenesis , biology , transplantation , andrology , stem cell , germ cell , testicle , immunology , microbiology and biotechnology , medicine , endocrinology , genetics , gene
Recently, we described a method to transplant testicular cells from a fertile donor mouse to the seminiferous tubules of an infertile recipient male, where the donor cells generate spermatogenesis. Spermatozoa produced by the transplanted cells in the recipient testis will fertilize eggs and transmit the donor haplotype to the resulting animals. In the most successful transplantations, up to 80 per cent of progeny sired by the recipient male arise from donor cell‐derived spermatozoa. The cell responsible for generation of spermatogenesis following transplantation clearly is a spermatogonial stem cell, since the repopulation of recipient testes extends for periods exceeding 12 months. In the past year, experiments have shown that rat testicular cells transplanted to the seminiferous tubules of immunodeficient mice will generate rat spermatogenesis and produce normal appearing rat spermatozoa, opening the possibility of xenogeneic testicular cell transplantation for other species. In addition, it has proved possible to cryopreserve spermatogonial stem cells for long periods, following which they will produce normal spermatogenesis when transplanted to a recipient. The ability to cryopreserve testicular stem cells makes individual male germ lines immortal. In current work, we are focusing on techniques to increase the efficiency of spermatogonial transplantation and methods to culture the stem cells.