Germ cell transplantation into X-irradiated monkey testes

Abstract

The present study demonstrates the immaturity and complexity of germ cell transplantation as a clinical approach.

Spermatogonial Stem Cells and Animal Transgenesis

“…Although most studies have been performed in rodents, germ cell transplantation has also been applied to non-rodent species as pigs, goats, cattle, monkeys and recently fish and chickens (Honaramooz et al, 2002a(Honaramooz et al, ,b, 2003Schlatt et al, 2002;Izadyar et al, 2003b;Takeuchi et al, 2003;Yoshizaki et al, 2005;Lee et al, 2006;Mikkola et al, 2006;Okutsu et al 2006;Trefil et al 2006), as reviewed by Dobrinski, (2008). The first hurdle found when germ cell transplantation was applied to livestock species was the differences in testicular anatomy and physiology.…”

“…Busulfan is commonly used to suppress spermatogenesis in rodents. An alternative to Busulfan, irradiation of the testis Schlatt et al, 2002), being frequently adopted in studies with large animals as bulls . Despite all the described potential of SSCs to produce transgenic animals, until now, few groups have genetically modified these cells, being the efforts more restricted to laboratory species.…”

The reversible developmental unipotency of germ cells in chicken

“…In mammals, SSCs derived from postnatal males are facilitated under a defined microenvironment ex vivo and produced live offspring by germ cell transplantation into mice testes (Brinster & Zimmermann 1994). The involvement of transplanted germ cells in spermatogenesis in host testis has also been reported in primates (Schlatt et al 2002).…”

Spermatogonial stem cell biomarkers: improved outcomes of spermatogonial transplantation in male fertility restoration?

“…Accordingly, spermatogonial transplantation remains, to date, the only method to unequivocally identify SSC activity. This transplantation procedure has been applied using both fresh and frozen testis cell samples [13,14] and to large animal species, such as pigs and goats [15,16], as well as nonhuman primates [17]. Thus, while this technique has been used primarily in biological studies of rodent SSCs, it should be applicable in a wide range of animal species, including humans [8,18].…”