Pluripotent Stem Cells Derived From Adult Human Testes

Spermatogonial stem cells: Current biotechnological advances in reproduction and regenerative medicine

“…Although one work demonstrated teratoma formation and pluripotency markers expression [66] on these cells, tumors showed a relatively small volume [67] . Several other groups have produced allegedly human mGS cells as well, but these cells, although expressing several pluripotency markers, do not produce teratomas when transplanted into the skin of immunocompromised mice [68][69][70] . In fact, one group recently found that human testicular embryonic-like cells (allegedly mGS pluripotent cells) do not possess a transcriptome similar to that of human ES cells but rather have the phenotype of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), therefore, concluding that these cells are not pluripotent and most likely not of germ cell origin but instead mesenchymal [71] .…”

Wnt signaling promotes proliferation and stemness regulation of spermatogonial stem/progenitor cells

“…We were able to reprogram these cells into ES-like cells (Golestaneh et al 2009) that formed colonies and expressed human ES cell-specific transcription factors and proteins. We have generated two cell lines that have been passaged for more than 15 passages (Golestaneh et al 2009). RT-PCR analysis revealed that the ES-like colonies expressed markers of human ES cells such as POU5F1, NANOG, ESG1, TDGF1, and SOX2.…”

Pluripotent Stem Cells from Testis

“…This was confirmed in mouse by (Seandel et al, 2007) showing that adult spermatogonia and/or their progenitors could indeed form pluripotent ES-like cells. Golestaneh and others (Conrad et al, 2008;Kossack et al, 2008;Golestaneh et al, 2009) have recently demonstrated a similar phenomenon in male germ cells and spermatogonia in the human testis. It is important to note that the SSCs/progenitor cells appear to reprogram spontaneously to pluripotency when the cells are removed from their niche and when ES cell media is added.…”