scholarly journals 267 TESTIS TISSUE XENOGRAFTING AS A BIOASSAY FOR GERM CELL DEVELOPMENTAL POTENTIAL IN EQUINE CRYPTORCHID TESTES

2005 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 283 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Rathi ◽  
A. Honaramooz ◽  
W. Zeng ◽  
R. Turner ◽  
I. Dobrinski

In domestic animals, spermatogenic differentiation is blocked in abdominally retained testes exposed to core body temperature. It is not known if undifferentiated germ cells are retained in long-term cryptorchid equine testes, nor is it known whether any surviving germ cells retain their ability to progress through spermatogenesis. If functional germ cells do persist in equine abdominal testes, then the possibility exists that offspring could be derived even from bilaterally cryptorchid individuals. Previously, we reported an in vivo model where completion of spermatogenesis with production of spermatozoa capable of fertilization occurred in fragments of testicular tissue from immature mice, domestic animals, and monkeys grafted under the skin of immunodeficient mice. Therefore, spermatogenic development in testis tissue xenografts can serve as an in vivo assay system for the developmental potential of germ cells. The objective of this study was to investigate if cryptorchid horse testes that had been exposed to core body temperature for 1–3 years had retained developmentally competent germ cells. Small fragments of abdominally cryptorchid testis tissue (about 1 mm3) from three donor horses (1-, 2-, and 3-year-old Quarterhorse) were grafted under the back skin of castrated male immunodeficient mice (n = 8, 6, and 3 recipient mice, respectively). At the time of grafting, donor tissue did not contain differentiated germ cells. Histological examination of the testis xenografts was performed between 5 and 45 weeks post-transplantation. Weight of the seminal vesicles in the host mouse was recorded as an indicator of bioactive testosterone produced by the xenografts. By 28 weeks after grafting, pachytene spermatocytes were observed in xenografts from all cryptorchid donor testes. While haploid gametes would be expected to be present in xenografted testis tissue from descended equine testes by 35 weeks after grafting, spermatogenesis did not progress through meiosis in the cryptorchid grafts. In all recipient animals where spermatogenic differentiation occurred, the weight of the seminal vesicles in the castrated host mice was restored to pre-castration values, indicating that xenografts were capable of releasing biologically active testosterone. These results indicate that even after 3 years of exposure to core body temperature, equine cryptorchid testes contain germ cells capable of differentiation. It remains to be investigated if supplementation of exogenous gonadotropins might support post-meiotic differentiation of germ cells in cryptorchid equine testes xenografts. This work was supported by USDA 03-35203-13486.

Reproduction ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 131 (6) ◽  
pp. 1091-1098 ◽  
Author(s):  
R Rathi ◽  
A Honaramooz ◽  
W Zeng ◽  
R Turner ◽  
I Dobrinski

Grafting of testis tissue from immature animals to immunodeficient mice results in complete spermatogenesis, albeit with varying efficiency in different species. The objectives of this study were to investigate if grafting of horse testis tissue would result in spermatogenesis, and to assess the effect of exogenous gonadotropins on xenograft development. Small fragments of testis tissue from 7 colts (2 week to 4 years of age) were grafted under the back skin of castrated male immunodeficient mice. For 2 donor animals, half of the mice were treated with gonadotropins. Xenografts were analyzed at 4 and 8 months post-transplantation. Spermatogenic differentiation following grafting ranged from no differentiation to progression through meiosis with appearance of haploid cells. Administration of exogenous gonadotropins appeared to support post-meiotic differentiation. For more mature donor testis samples where spermatogenesis had progressed into or through meiosis, after grafting an initial loss of differentiated germ cells was observed followed by a resurgence of spermatogenesis. However, if haploid cells had been present prior to grafting, spermatogenesis did not progress beyond meiotic division. In all host mice with spermatogenic differentiation in grafts, increased weight of the seminal vesicles compared to castrated mice showed that xenografts were releasing testosterone. These results indicate that horse spermatogenesis occurs in a mouse host albeit with low efficiency. In most cases, spermatogenesis arrested at meiosis. The underlying mechanisms of this spermatogenic arrest require further investigation.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marta Lantero Rodriguez ◽  
Maaike Schilperoort ◽  
Inger Johansson ◽  
Elin Svedlund Eriksson ◽  
Vilborg Palsdottir ◽  
...  

Brown adipose tissue (BAT) burns substantial amounts of mainly lipids to produce heat. Some studies indicate that BAT activity and core body temperature are lower in males than females. Here we investigated the role of testosterone and its receptor (the androgen receptor; AR) in metabolic BAT activity in male mice. Castration, which renders mice testosterone deficient, slightly promoted the expression of thermogenic markers in BAT, decreased BAT lipid content, and increased basal lipolysis in isolated brown adipocytes. Further, castration increased the core body temperature. Triglyceride-derived fatty acid uptake, a proxy for metabolic BAT activity in vivo, was strongly increased in BAT from castrated mice (4.5-fold increase vs. sham-castrated mice) and testosterone replacement reversed the castration-induced increase in metabolic BAT activity. BAT-specific AR deficiency did not mimic the castration effects in vivo and AR agonist treatment did not diminish the activity of cultured brown adipocytes in vitro, suggesting that androgens do not modulate BAT activity via a direct, AR-mediated pathway. In conclusion, testosterone is a negative regulator of metabolic BAT activity in male mice. Our findings provide new insight into the metabolic actions of testosterone.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shinya Yoshida ◽  
Hiroshi Miyaguchi ◽  
Tsutomu Nakamura

<p><i>Objective:</i> A safe and affordable ingestible thermometer measuring core body temperature has the potential to become a future healthcare device for versatile applications in daily life. In this study, we developed an ingestible thermometer charged by a gastric acid battery. <i>Methods: </i>The device can operate in bowels by using the charged energy in multilayer ceramic capacitors as a storage capacitor. Adopting this strategy for energy storage solves the issues related to a conventional button battery: risk of injury to the digestive tract, bad disposability, and degradation. Additionally, to make it easy to assemble a coil antenna and electrical circuits in the device automatically, we developed a fabrication process based on a vertical stacking process of printed circuit boards with coil patterns. The dimensions of the prototyped device were smaller than those of existing ingestible thermometers. <i>Results: </i>In an experiment involving a dog, we successfully recorded the temperature in the digestive tract for 24 h in cycles of approximately 10 or 20 min, using a rectal thermometer and an existing ingestible thermometer as references. The temperature variations in time among our device, rectal thermometer, and existing ingestible thermometer were almost parallel. <i>Conclusion:</i> The recording ability of the core body temperature using our device has the potential to measure basal body temperature during sleep, the circadian rhythm, and fever type easily and robustly in daily life. <i>Significance: </i>Our ingestible thermometer is a step toward the development of sensors that can be swallowed for preventive medicine and health promotion. </p>


2005 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 247 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Honaramooz ◽  
W. Zeng ◽  
R. Rathi ◽  
J. Koster ◽  
O. Ryder ◽  
...  

In April 2003, two banteng (Bos javonicus) calves were born after heterologous nuclear transfer of donor cells from a genetically valuable individual frozen in 1978. One of the cloned banteng calves died at one week of age. The calf was found to have one scrotal and one abdominally cryptorchid testis. In an attempt to preserve male germ cells from this valuable animal, parts of each testis were shipped on ice to the University of Pennsylvania for xenografting. Grafting of testis tissue from immature domestic animals and monkeys under the back skin of immunodeficient mice can result in complete spermatogenesis, albeit with different levels of efficiency in different species. The objective of this experiment was to investigate if grafting of immature banteng testis tissue would result in spermatogenesis in a mouse host. Small fragments of tissue (about 1 mm, 3 each) from both testes were grafted under the back skin (4 pieces of scrotal testis on the right side and 4 pieces of retained testis on the left side) of 6 castrated male immunodeficient mice. Histological examination of the testis xenografts was performed 3, 6, 9, 12, and 15 months after transplantation. Weight of the seminal vesicles in the host mouse was recorded as an indicator of bioactive testosterone produced by the xenografts. At the time of grafting, both testes contained seminiferous cords with immature Sertoli cells and gonocytes. At 3, 6, and 9 months after grafting, pachytene spermatocytes were present in the xenografts of the scrotal testis whereas no germ cell differentiation was observed in grafts from the retained testis. However, spermatogenesis in grafts of the scrotal testis did not proceed further through meiosis in grafts analyzed at 12 and 15 months after grafting, with pachytene spermatocytes still the most advanced germ cell type present in grafts recovered 15 months after grafting. The weight of the seminal vesicles in the castrated host mice was restored to pre-castration values showing that xenografts were releasing bioactive testosterone. These results indicate that banteng spermatogenesis was initiated in the mouse host but became arrested at meiosis as observed previously in xenografts of immature bovine or equine testis. Therefore, haploid germ cells could not be recovered. This represents the first example of trying to preserve fertility from a rare, valuable newborn animal by testis tissue xenografting. While xenografting presents a previously unavailable option for preservation of male germ cells from immature individuals, the efficiency of sperm production in testis xenografts appears to be variable and has to be determined empirically for different donor species. This work was supported by USDA 03-35203-13486.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qun Wei ◽  
Hee-Joon Park ◽  
Jyung Hyun Lee

In this paper, a user-friendly and low-cost wireless health monitoring system that measures skin temperature from the back of the body for monitoring the core body temperature is proposed. To measure skin temperature accurately, a semiconductor-based microtemperature sensor with a maximum accuracy of ±0.3°C was chosen and controlled by a high-performance/low-power consumption Acorn-Reduced Instruction Set Computing Machine (ARM) architecture microcontroller to build the temperature measuring device. Relying on a 2.4 GHz multichannel Gaussian frequency shift keying (GFSK) RF communication technology, up to 100 proposed temperature measuring devices can transmit the data to one receiver at the same time. The shell of the proposed wireless temperature-measuring device was manufactured via a 3D printer, and the device was assembled to conduct the performance tests and in vivo experiments. The performance test was conducted with a K-type temperature sensor in a temperature chamber to observe temperature measurement performance. The results showed an error value between two devices was less than 0.1°C from 25 to 40°C. For the in vivo experiments, the device was attached on the back of 10 younger male subjects to measure skin temperature to investigate the relationship with ear temperature. According to the experimental results, an algorithm based on the curve-fitting method was implemented in the proposed device to estimate the core body temperature by the measured skin temperature value. The algorithm was established as a linear model and set as a quadratic formula with an interpolant and with each coefficient for the equation set with 95% confidence bounds. For evaluating the goodness of fit, the sum of squares due to error (SSE), R-square, adjusted R-square, and root mean square error (RMSE) values were 33.0874, 0.0212, 0.0117, and 0.3998, respectively. As the experimental results have shown, the mean value for an error between ear temperature and estimated core body temperature is about ±0.19°C, and the mean bias is 0.05 ± 0.14°C when the subjects are in steady status.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shinya Yoshida ◽  
Hiroshi Miyaguchi ◽  
Tsutomu Nakamura

<p><i>Objective:</i> A safe and affordable ingestible thermometer measuring core body temperature has the potential to become a future healthcare device for versatile applications in daily life. In this study, we developed an ingestible thermometer charged by a gastric acid battery. <i>Methods: </i>The device can operate in bowels by using the charged energy in multilayer ceramic capacitors as a storage capacitor. Adopting this strategy for energy storage solves the issues related to a conventional button battery: risk of injury to the digestive tract, bad disposability, and degradation. Additionally, to make it easy to assemble a coil antenna and electrical circuits in the device automatically, we developed a fabrication process based on a vertical stacking process of printed circuit boards with coil patterns. The dimensions of the prototyped device were smaller than those of existing ingestible thermometers. <i>Results: </i>In an experiment involving a dog, we successfully recorded the temperature in the digestive tract for 24 h in cycles of approximately 10 or 20 min, using a rectal thermometer and an existing ingestible thermometer as references. The temperature variations in time among our device, rectal thermometer, and existing ingestible thermometer were almost parallel. <i>Conclusion:</i> The recording ability of the core body temperature using our device has the potential to measure basal body temperature during sleep, the circadian rhythm, and fever type easily and robustly in daily life. <i>Significance: </i>Our ingestible thermometer is a step toward the development of sensors that can be swallowed for preventive medicine and health promotion. </p>


2005 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 283 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Turner ◽  
R. Rathi ◽  
A. Honaramooz ◽  
W. Zeng ◽  
I. Dobrinski

Grafting of testis tissue from immature animals under the back skin of immunodeficient mice results in complete spermatogenesis, albeit with different levels of efficiency in different species. While spermatogenesis develops comparably to that in the donor species in xenografts from pigs, sheep and goats, spermatogenic differentiation is less efficient in testis tissue from cats and bulls. Testicular maturation was significantly accelerated in rhesus monkey testis grafts whereas timing was similar to that in the donor species in cats and bulls. The objective of this study was to investigate if grafting of immature horse testis tissue would result in spermatogenesis in a mouse host. Small fragments of testis tissue (about 1 mm3) from four sexually immature colts (2-week-old Standardbred, 5- and 8-month-old ponies, 10-month-old Warmblood) were grafted under the back skin of castrated male immunodeficient mice (n = 5, 5, 10 and 5 recipient mice, respectively). Histological examination of the testis xenografts was performed between 14 and 50 week post-transplantation. Weight of the seminal vesicles in the host mouse was recorded as an indicator of bioactive testosterone produced by the xenografts. At the time of grafting, the seminiferous cords of the donor testis tissue form 2-week-, 5-month- and 8-month-old colts contained only immature Sertoli cells and gonocytes. No spermatogenic differentiation occurred in xenografts from the 2-week-old colt and testosterone production was minimal. Pachytene spermatocytes were observed in testis grafts from the 5- and 8-month-old donors from 14 weeks onward. Spermatogenesis did not proceed through meiosis in grafts from the 5-month-old donor. Recipient mice carrying xenografts from the 8-month-old donor received exogenous gonadotropins (equine chorionic gonadotropin and human chorionic gonadotropin, 10 I.U./day for 2 months, beginning 14 weeks after grafting) and condensing spermatids were observed by 35 weeks after grafting. In donor tissue from the 10-month-old colt, pachytene spermatocytes were present in about 50% of tubules at the time of grafting. After 14 weeks, xenografts showed fewer differentiated germ cells than the donor tissue. However, at 35 weeks after grafting, condensing spermatids were observed, indicating that differentiated germ cells were initially lost and spermatogenesis was subsequently reinitiated. In all castrated host mice where spermatogenic differentiation occurred, the weight of the seminal vesicles was restored to pre-castration values showing that xenografts were releasing bioactive testosterone. These results indicate that horse spermatogenesis can occur in a mouse host albeit with low efficiency. Testicular maturation was not accelerated. In most cases, spermatogenesis appeared to become arrested at meiosis. The underlying mechanisms of this spermatogenic arrest require further investigation. Although equine testis xenografts produced testosterone, supplementation of exogenous gonadotropins might support post-meiotic differentiation. This work was supported by USDA 03-35203-13486.


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