BACKGROUND A key step in studying the biology of spermatogonia is to determine their global gene expression profile. However, disassociation of these cells from the testis may alter their profile to a considerable degree. To characterize the molecular phenotype of human spermatogonia, including spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs), within their cognate microenvironment, a rare subtype of human defe...

Vaccinia-related kinase 1 (VRK1) is a crucial protein kinase for mitotic regulation. VRK1 is known to play a role in germ cell development, and its deficiency results in sterility. Here we describe that VRK1 is essential for the maintenance of spermatogonial stem cells. To determine whether VRK1 plays a role in these cells, we assessed the population size of undifferentiated spermatogonia. Flow...

Spermatogonia are the male germ line stem cells whose life long expansion is needed for permanent production of spermatozoa. The present study was designed to examine the effect of hCG treatment on germ cell proliferation following stem cell transplantation in mice. Spermatogonial stem cells were isolated from neonatal mice testes and characterized by alkaline phosphatase, immunoreactivity and ...

Enrichment of cell suspension with germ cells prior to injection into recipient seminiferous tubules is of importance in spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) transplantation. Knock-out serum replacement (KSR) has been reported to enhance the proliferation of murine SSCs and human embryonic stem cells. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of KSR versus fetal bovine serum (FBS) ...

Although many environmental agents are established male germ cell mutagens, few are known to induce mutations in spermatogonial stem cells. Stem cell mutations are of great concern because they result in a permanent increase in the number of mutations carried in sperm. We investigated mutation induction during mouse spermatogenesis following exposure to benzo(a)pyrene (BaP). MutaMouse males wer...

Although spermatogenesis is essential for reproduction, little is known about spermatogonial stem cells. These cells provide the basis for spermatogenesis throughout adult life by undergoing self-renewal and by providing progeny that differentiate into spermatozoa. A major impediment to our understanding of the biology of these stem cells is the inability to distinguish them from spermatogonia ...

There have been significant breakthroughs over the past decade in the development and use of pluripotent stem cells as a potential source of cells for applications in regenerative medicine. It is likely that this methodology will begin to play an important role in human clinical medicine in the years to come. This review describes the plasticity of one type of pluripotent cell, spermatogonial s...

Spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) are responsible for the preservation of spermatogenesis throughout a man's adult reproductive life. Like other stem cells in the body, SSCs can either self-renew or differentiate. Recent research has shown that SSCs can be considered as multipotent stem cells which can differentiate into cell types other than exclusively gametes. SSC proliferation is a well regu...

introduction: brain injury is an important cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide and so far, there has been no absolute treatment for the damaged brain tissue. using human stem cells with self-assembling scaffolds can be a promising method for treatment of traumatic brain injury. materials and methods: human meningioma stem cells were isolated, cultured and then expanded into in vitro cond...

An economical and simplified procedure to derive and propagate fully functional lines of undifferentiated rat spermatogonia in vitro is presented. The procedure is based on the formulation of a new spermatogonial culture medium termed SG medium. The SG medium is composed of a 1:1 mixture of Dulbecco modified Eagle medium:Ham F12 nutrient, 20 ng/ml of GDNF, 25 ng/ml of FGF2, 100 microM 2-mercapt...