Primate Spermatogonial Stem Cells Colonize Mouse Testes

• Published in: Biology of reproduction Vol. 64; no. 5; pp. 1409 - 1416
• Main Authors: NAGANO, Makoto, MCCARREY, John R, BRINSTER, Ralph L
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Madison, WI Society for the Study of Reproduction 01-05-2001
• Subjects: Animals; Antibodies - immunology; Antibody Specificity; Biological and medical sciences; Biological Evolution; Birth control; Cell Differentiation; Gynecology. Andrology. Obstetrics; Male; Medical sciences; Mice; Mice, Nude; Papio; Sexual Maturation; Species Specificity; Spermatogenesis; Spermatogonia - transplantation; Stem Cell Transplantation; Sterility. Assisted procreation; Testis - cytology; Testis - immunology; Time Factors; Transplantation, Heterologous; Sertoli cell; Stem cell; Rodentia; Transplantation; Testicle; Male genital system; Sterility; Vertebrata; Mammalia; Treatment; Mouse; Animal; Spermatogonia; Primates; Colonization
• ISSN: 0006-3363; 1529-7268
• DOI: 10.1095/biolreprod64.5.1409

In mice, transplantation of spermatogonial stem cells from a fertile male to the seminiferous tubules of an infertile recipient
male results in progeny with donor-derived haplotype. Attempts to extend this approach by transplanting human testis cells
to mice have led to conflicting claims that no donor germ cells persisted or that human spermatozoa were produced in the recipient.
To examine this issue we used the baboon, a primate in which testis cell populations of several ages could be obtained for
transplantation, and demonstrate that donor spermatogonial stem cells readily establish germ cell colonies in recipient mice,
which exist for periods of at least 6 mo. However, differentiation of germ cells toward the lumen of the tubule and production
of spermatozoa did not occur. The presence of baboon spermatogonial stem cells and undifferentiated spermatogonia in mouse
seminiferous tubules for long periods after transplantation indicates that antigens, growth factors, and signaling molecules
that are necessary for interaction of these cells and the testis environment have been preserved for 100 million years of
evolutionary separation. Because germ cell differentiation and spermatogenesis did not occur, the molecules necessary for
this process appear to have undergone greater divergence between baboon and mouse.