scholarly journals Isolation and purification of type A spermatogonia from the bovine testis

Reproduction ◽  
2002 ◽  
pp. 85-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
F Izadyar ◽  
GT Spierenberg ◽  
LB Creemers ◽  
K den Ouden ◽  
DG de Rooij

The aim of this study was to isolate and purify bovine type A spermatogonia. Testes from 5-7-month-old calves were used to isolate germ cells using a two-step enzymatic digestion. During the isolation and purification steps, the viability of cells was determined using live/dead staining. The identity of type A spermatogonia during isolation and purification was determined under a light microscope equipped with a Nomarski lens. Isolated cells were characterized further by using specific markers for type A spermatogonia, including Dolichos biflorus agglutinin (DBA) and c-kit. The cell suspension was transplanted into immunodeficient recipient mouse testes and the colonization was assessed 1-3 months after transplantation, to assess the stem cell population among the isolated cells. After isolation, a cell suspension was obtained containing about 25% type A spermatogonia, which was enriched further by differential plating and separation on a discontinuous Percoll gradient. Finally, fractions containing 65-87% pure type A spermatogonia were obtained. Large and small type A spermatogonia with different numbers and sizes of nucleoli were found. DBA stained both large and small type A spermatogonia and its application in fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) resulted in comparable percentages of type A spermatogonia to those determined by morphological examination under a light microscope equipped with a Nomarski lens. Nearly all of the large type A spermatogonia showed strong c-kit immunoreactivity, indicating that these cells had undergone at least an initial differentiation step. In contrast, approximately half of the small type A spermatogonia were negative for c-kit, indicating the presence of the spermatogonial stem cells in this population. At 3 months after transplantation, groups of bovine type A spermatogonia were found in most tubule cross-sections of the recipient mouse testes, showing the presence of spermatogonial stem cells among the isolated cells.

Reproduction ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 136 (5) ◽  
pp. 543-557 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pedro M Aponte ◽  
Takeshi Soda ◽  
Katja J Teerds ◽  
S Canan Mizrak ◽  
Henk J G van de Kant ◽  
...  

The access to sufficient numbers of spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) is a prerequisite for the study of their regulation and further biomanipulation. A specialized medium and several growth factors were tested to study thein vitrobehavior of bovine type A spermatogonia, a cell population that includes the SSCs and can be specifically stained for the lectin Dolichos biflorus agglutinin. During short-term culture (2 weeks), colonies appeared, the morphology of which varied with the specific growth factor(s) added. Whenever the stem cell medium was used, round structures reminiscent of sectioned seminiferous tubules appeared in the core of the colonies. Remarkably, these round structures always contained type A spermatogonia. When leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF), epidermal growth factor (EGF), or fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2) were added, specific effects on the numbers and arrangement of somatic cells were observed. However, the number of type A spermatogonia was significantly higher in cultures to which glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) was added and highest when GDNF, LIF, EGF, and FGF2 were all present. The latter suggests that a proper stimulation of the somatic cells is necessary for optimal stimulation of the germ cells in culture. Somatic cells present in the colonies included Sertoli cells, peritubular myoid cells, and a few Leydig cells. A transplantation experiment, using nude mice, showed the presence of SSCs among the cultured cells and in addition strongly suggested a more than 10 000-fold increase in the number of SSCs after 30 days of culture. These results demonstrate that bovine SSC self-renew in our specialized bovine culture system and that this system can be used for the propagation of these cells.


Reproduction ◽  
2003 ◽  
pp. 765-774 ◽  
Author(s):  
F Izadyar ◽  
K Den Ouden ◽  
TA Stout ◽  
J Stout ◽  
J Coret ◽  
...  

The aim of this study was to develop a method for spermatogonial stem cell transplantation into the bovine testis. Five-month-old Holstein-Friesian calves were used and half of the calves were hemicastrated to allow autologous transplantation and the other half were used for homologous transplantation. Approximately 20 g of each testis was used for cell isolation. On average 106 cells per gram of testis containing about 70% type A spermatogonia were isolated. The cells were frozen in liquid nitrogen until transplantation. Testes were irradiated locally with 10-14 Gy of X-rays to deplete endogenous spermatogenesis. At 2 months after irradiation, cells (approximately 10 x 10(6) were injected into the rete testis through a long injection needle (18 gauge), using ultrasonography and an ultrasound contrast solution. At 2.5 months after transplantation, calves were castrated and samples of testes were taken for histological examination. After 2.5 months in the irradiated non-transplanted control testes, only 45% of the tubules contained type A spermatogonia. However, after autologous spermatogonial transplantation, >80% of the tubule cross-sections contained type A spermatogonia. In addition, only 20% of the tubules of the control testes contained spermatocytes and, except for a few tubules (5%) with round spermatids, no more advanced germ cells were found. After autologous spermatogonial transplantation, about 60% of the tubules contained spermatocytes; 30% contained spermatids and in about 15% of tubules spermatozoa were found. No improvement in spermatogonial repopulation was found after homologous transplantation. The results of this study demonstrate, for the first time, successful autologous transplantation of bovine spermatogonial stem cells resulting in a complete regeneration of spermatogenesis.


Development ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 127 (10) ◽  
pp. 2125-2131 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Ohta ◽  
K. Yomogida ◽  
K. Dohmae ◽  
Y. Nishimune

To study self-renewal and differentiation of spermatogonial stem cells, we have transplanted undifferentiated testicular germ cells of the GFP transgenic mice into seminiferous tubules of mutant mice with male sterility, such as those dysfunctioned at Steel (Sl) locus encoding the c-kit ligand or Dominant white spotting (W) locus encoding the receptor c-kit. In the seminiferous tubules of Sl/Sl(d) or Sl(17H)/Sl(17H) mice, transplanted donor germ cells proliferated and formed colonies of undifferentiated c-kit (−) spermatogonia, but were unable to differentiate further. However, these undifferentiated but proliferating spermatogonia, retransplanted into Sl (+) seminiferous tubules of W mutant, resumed differentiation, indicating that the transplanted donor germ cells contained spermatogonial stem cells and that stimulation of c-kit receptor by its ligand was necessary for maintenance of differentiated type A spermatogonia but not for proliferation of undifferentiated type A spermatogonia. Furthermore, we have demonstrated that their transplantation efficiency in the seminiferous tubules of Sl(17H)/Sl(17H) mice depended upon the stem cell niche on the basement membrane of the recipient seminiferous tubules and was increased by elimination of the endogenous spermatogonia of mutant mice from the niche by treating them with busulfan.


2019 ◽  
Vol 102 (1) ◽  
pp. 220-232 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hiroko Morimoto ◽  
Mito Kanatsu-Shinohara ◽  
Kyle E Orwig ◽  
Takashi Shinohara

Abstract Spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) undergo continuous self-renewal division in response to self-renewal factors. The present study identified ephrin type-A receptor 2 (EPHA2) on mouse SSCs and showed that supplementation of glial cell-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) and fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2), which are both SSC self-renewal factors, induced EPHA2 expression in cultured SSCs. Spermatogonial transplantation combined with magnetic-activated cell sorting or fluorescence-activated cell sorting also revealed that EPHA2 was expressed in SSCs. Additionally, ret proto-oncogene (RET) phosphorylation levels decreased following the knockdown (KD) of Epha2 expression via short hairpin ribonucleic acid (RNA). Although the present immunoprecipitation experiments did not reveal an association between RET with EPHA2, RET interacted with FGFR2. The Epha2 KD decreased the proliferation of cultured SSCs and inhibited the binding of cultured SSCs to laminin-coated plates. The Epha2 KD also significantly reduced the colonization of testis cells by spermatogonial transplantation. EPHA2 was also expressed in human GDNF family receptor alpha 1-positive spermatogonia. The present results indicate that SSCs express EPHA2 and suggest that it is a critical modifier of self-renewal signals in SSCs.


Zygote ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (02) ◽  
pp. 82-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vivek Pandey ◽  
Anima Tripathi ◽  
Pawan K. Dubey

SummaryThe decision by germ cells to differentiate and undergo either oogenesis or spermatogenesis takes place during embryonic development and Nanos plays an important role in this process. The present study was designed to investigate the expression patterns in rat of Nanos2-homologue protein in primordial germ cells (PGCs) over different embryonic developmental days as well as in spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs). Embryos from three different embryonic days (E8.5, E10.5, E11.5) and SSCs were isolated and used to detect Nanos2-homologue protein using immunocytochemistry, western blotting, reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and flow cytometry. Interestingly, Nanos2 expression was detected in PGCs at day E11.5 onwards and up to colonization of PGCs in the genital ridge of fetal gonads. No Nanos2 expression was found in PGCs during early embryonic days (E8.5 and 10.5). Furthermore, immunohistochemical and immunofluorescence data revealed that Nanos2 expression was restricted within a subpopulation of undifferentiated spermatogonia (As, single type A SSCs and Apr, paired type A SSCs). The same results were confirmed by our western blot and RT-PCR data, as Nanos2 protein and transcripts were detected only in PGCs from day E11.5 and in undifferentiated spermatogonia (As and Apr). Furthermore, Nanos2-positive cells were also immunodetected and sorted using flow cytometry from the THY1-positive SSCs population, and this strengthened the idea that these cells are stem cells. Our findings suggested that stage-specific expression of Nanos2 occurred on different embryonic developmental days, while during the postnatal period Nanos2 expression is restricted to As and Apr SSCs.


2012 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 337 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ning Qu ◽  
Munekazu Naito ◽  
Jun Li ◽  
Hayato Terayama ◽  
Shuichi Hirai ◽  
...  

Spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) are the foundation of spermatogenesis, and are characterised by their ability to self-renew and to produce differentiated progeny that form spermatozoa. It has been demonstrated that rat spermatogenesis can occur in the seminiferous tubules of congenitally immunodeficient recipient mice after transplantation of rat SSCs. However, the testis is often viewed as an immune-privileged site in that autoimmunogenic antigens on germ cells do not normally elicit an immune response in situ. In the present study, we tried to transplant rat SSCs into immunocompetent mice after depletion of their own germ cells by means of busulfan. The results showed that some transplanted SSCs could undergo complete spermatogenesis in recipient mouse testes, the rat spermatozoa being detected in 7 of 28 recipient epididymides. A significant increase in mouse spermatozoa was also noted in all 28 epididymides of recipient mice regardless of whether rat spermatozoa were concurrently present or not. These results suggest that transplanted rat SSCs can be tolerated in the testes of immunocompetent mice and that the transplantation of rat SSCs stimulates endogenous spermatogenesis in the recipient mice.


2009 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 393 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muren Herrid ◽  
Rhonda J. Davey ◽  
Keryn Hutton ◽  
Ian G. Colditz ◽  
Jonathan R. Hill

The objective of the present study was to identify an efficient and practical enrichment method for bovine type A spermatogonia. Four different enrichment methods were compared: differential plating on laminin- or Datura stramonium agglutinin (DSA)-coated flasks, percoll-gradient isolation, magnetic-activated cell sorting (MACS) and fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS). The isolated cells were characterised with Dolichos biflorus agglutinin (DBA) lectin staining for type A spermatogonia and vimentin-antibody staining for Sertoli cells. A 2 × 2 factorial design was used to investigate the enrichment efficiency on laminin and DSA. In the laminin-enrichment groups, 2 h incubation in plates coated with 20 μg mL–1 laminin yielded a 3.3-fold increase in DBA-positive cells in the adherent fraction, while overnight incubation in flasks coated with 20 μg mL–1 DSA produced a 3.6-fold increase in the non-adherent fraction. However, the greatest enrichment (5.3-fold) of DBA-positive cells was obtained after 2 h incubation in control flasks (coated with bovine serum albumin). Percoll-gradient centrifugation yielded a 3-fold increase in DBA-positive cells. MACS results showed a 3.5- to 5-fold enrichment while FACS produced a 4-fold increase in DBA-positive cells. It is concluded that differential plating is a better method of recovering large numbers of type A spermatogonia for germ cell transplantation, while MACS or FACS can provide highly enriched viable type A spermatogonia for in vitro culture. Further, the combination of differential plating and other enrichment techniques may increase the purification efficiency of type A spermatogonia.


2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 730-738 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tooba Mirzapour ◽  
Mansoureh Movahedin ◽  
Tengku Azmi Bin Tengku Ibr ◽  
Abd Wahid Haro ◽  
Zohreh Makoolati ◽  
...  

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