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1 May 2002 Development of the Stages of the Cycle in Mouse Seminiferous Epithelium after Transplantation of Green Fluorescent Protein-Labeled Spermatogonial Stem Cells
Sami Ventelä, Hiroshi Ohta, Martti Parvinen, Yoshitake Nishimune
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Abstract

To study the mechanism of male germ cell differentiation, testicular germ cells carrying green fluorescent protein (GFP) as a transgene marker were transplanted into infertile mouse testis. Fluorescence-positive seminiferous tubule segments colonized with GFP-labeled donor germ cells were isolated and measured, and differentiated germ cells were analyzed in living squashed preparations. Cell associations in normal stages of the seminiferous epithelial cycle were also studied and used as a reference. Two months after transplantation, the average length of the colonies was 1.3 mm. The cell associations of transplanted colonies were consistent with those of normal stages of the cycle. However, stages of the cycle were not necessarily identical in different colonies. Three months after transplantation, the average length of transplanted colonies was 3.4 mm, and the cell association in every portion of a colony was similar to that of the corresponding stage of the cycle. Even in long fused colonies made by transplantation of a higher concentration of male germ cells, the cell association patterns in various regions of a single colony were similar and consistent with those of some of the normal stages of the cycle. Development of different stages inside the colony was observed by 6 mo after transplantation. These results indicate that the commencement of spermatogonial stem cell differentiation occurs randomly to develop different stages of the cycle in different colonies. Then, each colony shows one single stage of the cycle for a long time, even if it becomes a very large colony or fuses with other colonies. These observations indicate the existence of some kind of synchronization mechanism. By 6 mo, however, normal development of the stages of the cycle appeared in seminiferous tubules.

Sami Ventelä, Hiroshi Ohta, Martti Parvinen, and Yoshitake Nishimune "Development of the Stages of the Cycle in Mouse Seminiferous Epithelium after Transplantation of Green Fluorescent Protein-Labeled Spermatogonial Stem Cells," Biology of Reproduction 66(5), 1422-1429, (1 May 2002). https://doi.org/10.1095/biolreprod66.5.1422
Received: 2 July 2001; Accepted: 1 December 2001; Published: 1 May 2002
KEYWORDS
gene regulation
Sertoli cells
spermatid
spermatogenesis
testis
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