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BOR - Papers in Press, published online ahead of print January 17, 2007.
Biol Reprod 2007, 10.1095/biolreprod.106.058305
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Submitted October 25, 2006
Returned for revision November 29, 2006
Accepted January 15, 2007

Testis


Male Germ Line Stem Cells Have an Altered Potential to Proliferate and Differentiate During Postnatal Development in Mice

Kevin T. Ebata , Xiangfan Zhang , and Makoto Nagano *

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: makoto.nagano{at}muhc.mcgill.ca.

Abstract
Spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) continuously support spermatogenesis after puberty. However, accumulating evidence suggests that SSCs may functionally differ during postnatal development. For example, mutant mice exist in which SSCs support spermatogenesis in the first wave after birth, but cease to do so thereafter, resulting in infertility in adults. Studies using a retroviral vector have shown that the vector transduces pup SSCs more efficiently than adult SSCs, suggesting that pup SSCs divide more frequently. Thus, it is hypothesized that SSCs in pup and adult testes may have different characteristics. As an approach to test this hypothesis, in this study, we investigated the proliferation kinetics of pup SSCs (6 - 9 days old) and their selfrenewal/ differentiation patterns during 2 months after transplantation, and compared them to those of adult SSCs. Using serial transplantation, we found that the number of pup SSCs declined over the first week after transplantation. Thereafter, it increased ~4-fold by 1 mo and ~9-fold by 2 mo, indicating that pup SSCs continuously proliferated from 1 wk to 2 mo after transplantation. Compared to the proliferation of SSCs derived from adult intact testes, that of pup SSCs was lower at 1 mo but similar at 2 mo, indicating a delayed proliferation of pup SSCs. However, pup SSCs regenerated spermatogenic colonies of a similar length at 1 mo as SSCs from adult intact testes. Therefore, these results suggest that some functional differences exist in SSCs during postnatal development, which may affect the potential of SSCs to self-renew and differentiate.

Key words: Testis • Developmental biology • Spermatogenesis


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J. R Yeh, X. Zhang, and M. C Nagano
Establishment of a Short-Term In Vitro Assay for Mouse Spermatogonial Stem Cells
Biol Reprod, November 1, 2007; 77(5): 897 - 904.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


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