Multipotency of Spermatogonial Stem Cells and Potential Applications in Regenerative Medicine

Adult stem cells show excellent perspectives for applications in the field of regenerative medicine. In the last two decades, great strides have been made in spermatogonial stem cell research showing the potentiality of these stem cells in organ regeneration. Spermatogonial stem cells, derived from post-natal or adult mice, not only differentiate into cell types other than the spermatozoa when injected in different environments in vivo, but they are also capable of converting spontaneously into pluripotent stem cells that are similar to mouse embryonic stem cells in vitro. The pluripotent spermatogonial stem cells proliferate extensively and can be maintained for long period in vitro. Moreover, these cells can be frozen and thawed several times without change in karyotype and loss of viability, and can also be induced to differentiate into multiple lineages without ethical constraints. In this chapter, we will provide an update on the potential application of spermatogonial stem cells in regenerative medicine.