Effects of recipient mouse strain, sex and gonadal status on the outcome of testis tissue xenografting

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to examine factors that may affect the outcome of testis tissue xenografting. Recipient factors were examined by grafting small fragments of testis tissue from newborn piglets under the back skin of immunodeficient mice of different strains (severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) v. nude), sex (male v. female) and gonadal status (intact v. gonadectomised) using a factorial design (eight groups; n = 7 mice per group). Recipient mice were killed after 8 months to compare the gross and histological attributes of the recovered grafts. Overall, approximately 94% of grafts were recovered. Gonadectomy of male or female recipients did not affect any of the measured outcomes of testis tissue xenografting, therefore data were pooled. Overall, in terms of sex, male mice and, in terms of strain, SCID mice tended to show higher gross and histological development of grafts. The group of female nude mice had the lowest graft recovery rate (75%) compared with the other groups (95-100%; P < 0.05). The grafts from male SCID mice were, on average the largest and had the highest percentage of spermatozoa-containing seminiferous tubules among all the groups (P < 0.05). These results suggest that male SCID mice provide a suitable recipient model for testis tissue xenografting and that the mice do not need to be castrated for optimal results.

Differentiation of Testis Xenografts in the Prepubertal Marmoset Depends on the Sex and Status of the Mouse Host

“…The striking host-dependent effects were substantiated by analysis of the most advanced germ cell types showing significant differences in the degree of post-meiotic germ cell differentiation between intact male and female hosts. This observation is in agreement with a study on newborn piglet testicular tissue revealing that poor post-meiotic differentiation is observed in female hosts compared to males (25). In mice a syngeneic testicular grafting study showed efficient graft survival and good post-meiotic differentiation in female recipients (48).…”

Germ cell differentiation in cryopreserved, immature, Indian spotted mouse deer (Moschiola indica) testes xenografted onto mice

“…Since earlier studies have shown no difference in survival and development of xenografts in both castrated and intact (noncastrated) mouse recipients [25,26], cryopreserved testicular tissues were xenografted onto intact nude mice. Cryopreserved rhesus monkey testes could establish spermatogenesis in intact mice [27] but not in castrated mice [28], indicating that intact mice support spermatogenesis in cryopreserved testes.…”

Xenografting of testicular tissue pieces: 12 years of an in vivo spermatogenesis system

“…Only one recent study had systematically compared the outcome of porcine testis tissue xenografting using both strains of mice. The results showed that the percentage of recovered grafts, graft weight, seminiferous tubular density and percentage of tubules cross sections presenting germ cells was higher when SCID mice were used as hosts while no differences were found in the percentage of tubules with elongated or round spermatids (Abbasi & Honaramooz 2010). It could be interesting to analyze whether these results are maintained when using another species as donor for the testicular tissue.…”

“…2012) but did not accelerate germ cell differentiation in bull or pig testis grafts (Huang et al . 2008, Abbasi & Honaramooz 2010). …”

“…However, no difference in outcome has been observed between using castrated or intact mice for cattle, pig and hamster testis xenografts (Huang et al . 2008, Abbasi & Honaramooz 2010, Schlatt et al . 2010a).…”