Limited survival of adult human testicular tissue as ectopic xenograft

BACKGROUND: Grafting of testicular tissue into immunodeficient mice has become an interesting and promising scientific tool for the generation of gametes and the study of testicular function. This technique might potentially be used to generate sperm from patients whose testes need to be removed or...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Human reproduction (Oxford) 2006-02, Vol.21 (2), p.384-389
Main Authors: Schlatt, S., Honaramooz, A., Ehmcke, J., Goebell, P.J., Rübben, H., Dhir, R., Dobrinski, I., Patrizio, P.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Animals
Biological and medical sciences
Choristoma - pathology
fertility preservation
Graft Survival
grafting
Gynecology. Andrology. Obstetrics
Humans
Infertility, Male - pathology
Male
Medical sciences
Mice
spermatogenesis
Spermatogenesis - physiology
steroidogenesis
testis
Testis - pathology
Testis - transplantation
Transplantation, Heterologous
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Summary:BACKGROUND: Grafting of testicular tissue into immunodeficient mice has become an interesting and promising scientific tool for the generation of gametes and the study of testicular function. This technique might potentially be used to generate sperm from patients whose testes need to be removed or are destroyed due to therapeutic intervention or as a consequence of disease. Here we explore whether adult human testicular tissue from patients with different testicular pathologies survives as xenograft. METHODS AND RESULTS: Testis tissue from adult patients with varying degrees of spermatogenesis was grafted into two strains of immunodeficient mice (severe combined immunodeficiency, Nu/Nu). Tissue with active spermatogenesis prior to grafting largely regressed. However, testicular tissue survival was better in cases where spermatogenesis was suppressed prior to grafting and occasionally spermatogonial stem cells survived. Cases with spermatogenic disruption were not corrected by the xenografting. CONCLUSION: Superior survival of the germinal epithelium and spermatogonia when spermatogenesis was suppressed prior to grafting could provide a novel strategy for germline preservation in pre-pubertal cancer patients. This approach could also be valuable to study the early stages of human spermatogenesis.
ISSN:0268-1161
1460-2350
DOI:10.1093/humrep/dei352