Honaramooz Ali, Li Ming-Wen, Penedo M Cecilia T, Meyers Stuart, Dobrinski Ina
Center for Animal Transgenesis and Germ Cell Research, Department of Clinical Sciences, New Bolton Center, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Kennett Square, Pennsylvania 19348, USA.
Biol Reprod. 2004 May;70(5):1500-3. doi: 10.1095/biolreprod.103.025536. Epub 2004 Jan 21.
Testicular maturation and sperm production throughout the life of the male form the basis of male fertility. It is difficult to elucidate the intricate processes controlling testicular maturation and spermatogenesis in primates in vivo due to the long time span required for sexual maturation and also to the lack of accessible in vitro or in vivo models of primate spermatogenesis. Ectopic xenografting of neonatal testis tissue into mice provides an accessible model to study and manipulate the propagation and differentiation of male germ cells from immature donor animals. However, it was not clear whether this approach would be applicable to slowly maturing primates. Here we report that grafting of testis tissue from immature rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) into host mice resulted in the acceleration of testicular maturation and production of fertilization-competent sperm in testis xenografts. The system reported here provides a powerful, practical approach to study timing and control of testicular maturation and regulation of primate spermatogenesis without the necessity for experimentation in primates. This approach could potentially be applied to produce fertile sperm from sexually immature individuals of rare or valuable primate species or from prepubertal boys undergoing sterilizing therapy for cancer.
雄性一生中的睾丸成熟和精子产生是男性生育能力的基础。由于性成熟所需的时间跨度长，且缺乏可利用的灵长类动物精子发生的体外或体内模型，因此很难在体内阐明控制灵长类动物睾丸成熟和精子发生的复杂过程。将新生睾丸组织异位移植到小鼠体内，为研究和操纵来自未成熟供体动物的雄性生殖细胞的增殖和分化提供了一个可利用的模型。然而，尚不清楚这种方法是否适用于成熟缓慢的灵长类动物。在此我们报告，将未成熟恒河猴（猕猴）的睾丸组织移植到宿主小鼠体内，可加速睾丸成熟，并在睾丸异种移植物中产生具有受精能力的精子。本文报道的系统提供了一种强大而实用的方法，可用于研究睾丸成熟的时间和控制以及灵长类动物精子发生的调节，而无需在灵长类动物身上进行实验。这种方法有可能应用于从珍稀或有价值的灵长类物种的性未成熟个体或接受癌症绝育治疗的青春期前男孩中产生可育精子。
