TY - JOUR
T1 - Strains matter: Success of murine in vitro spermatogenesis is dependent on genetic background
AU - Portela, Joana M. D.
AU - Mulder, Callista L.
AU - van Daalen, Saskia K. M.
AU - de Winter-Korver, Cindy M.
AU - Stukenborg, Jan-Bernd
AU - Repping, Sjoerd
AU - van Pelt, Ans M. M.
PY - 2019/12/1
Y1 - 2019/12/1
N2 - The current strategy to preserve fertility of male prepubertal cancer patients consists of cryopreservation of a testicular tissue biopsy containing spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs). While in humans, fertility restoration strategies from prepubertal testicular tissues are still under investigation and have not yet resulted in complete germ cell differentiation, in mice various studies have described production of sperm and offspring through testicular organ culture and transplantation of in vitro propagated SSCs. Organ culture has shown to be successful in generating mature spermatozoa when using testicular fragments from various mouse strains, including CD1 and C57BL/6 J. Conversely, in vitro proliferation of SSCs from C57BL/6 J mice is highly inefficient when compared to other strains such as DBA2 or hybrid mice of C57BL/6 J and DBA2 with 75% C57BL/6 J background (B6D2F2). In this study, we investigated in vitro spermatogenesis by organ culture using testicular tissue from C57BL/6 J and B6D2F2 mice. Whereas spermatogenesis was initiated and completed in C57BL/6 J fragments, it could not be effectively supported in B6D2F2 testicular tissue. While maturation of Sertoli cells and Leydig cells functionality appeared to be identical between the two strains, in B6D2F2 tissue spermatogenesis did not proceed past the spermatocyte step, followed by a rapid decline of the number of all germ cells in the fragments. This suggests that the spermatogenic potential in vitro is dependent on specialized sites in the genome and therefore the organ culture conditions suboptimal for some strains of mice.
AB - The current strategy to preserve fertility of male prepubertal cancer patients consists of cryopreservation of a testicular tissue biopsy containing spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs). While in humans, fertility restoration strategies from prepubertal testicular tissues are still under investigation and have not yet resulted in complete germ cell differentiation, in mice various studies have described production of sperm and offspring through testicular organ culture and transplantation of in vitro propagated SSCs. Organ culture has shown to be successful in generating mature spermatozoa when using testicular fragments from various mouse strains, including CD1 and C57BL/6 J. Conversely, in vitro proliferation of SSCs from C57BL/6 J mice is highly inefficient when compared to other strains such as DBA2 or hybrid mice of C57BL/6 J and DBA2 with 75% C57BL/6 J background (B6D2F2). In this study, we investigated in vitro spermatogenesis by organ culture using testicular tissue from C57BL/6 J and B6D2F2 mice. Whereas spermatogenesis was initiated and completed in C57BL/6 J fragments, it could not be effectively supported in B6D2F2 testicular tissue. While maturation of Sertoli cells and Leydig cells functionality appeared to be identical between the two strains, in B6D2F2 tissue spermatogenesis did not proceed past the spermatocyte step, followed by a rapid decline of the number of all germ cells in the fragments. This suggests that the spermatogenic potential in vitro is dependent on specialized sites in the genome and therefore the organ culture conditions suboptimal for some strains of mice.
UR - https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?partnerID=HzOxMe3b&scp=85070770660&origin=inward
UR - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31421080
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ydbio.2019.08.007
DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ydbio.2019.08.007
M3 - Article
C2 - 31421080
SN - 0012-1606
VL - 456
SP - 25
EP - 30
JO - Developmental biology
JF - Developmental biology
IS - 1
ER -