Ziaeipour Sanaz, Ahrabi Behnaz, Naserzadeh Parvaneh, Aliaghaei Abbas, Sajadi Ensieh, Abbaszadeh Hojjat-Allah, Amini Abdollah, Abdi Shabnam, Darabi Shahram, Abdollahifar Mohammad-Amin
Department of Biology and Anatomical Sciences, School of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Cell Physiol Biochem. 2019;52(3):421-434. doi: 10.33594/000000030. Epub 2019 Mar 8.
BACKGROUND/AIMS: The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential and significant applications of Sertoli cells (SCs) transplantation, and to explore the effect of transplantation on spermatogenesis process, in azospermic mice.
In this study, we utilized 18 adult mice (28‒30 g), divided into four experimental groups: (1) control, (2) vehicle (DMSO 2%) (10 µl) (3) busulfan and (4) busulfan+ SCs (1×104 cells/μL). SCs were isolated from the testis of 4-week-old mouse and after using anesthetics, 10 μl of SCs suspension (1×104 cells/μL) was injected over 3-5 min, into each testis and subsequently, sperm samples were collected from the tail of the epididymis. Afterward, the animals were euthanized and testis samples were taken for histopathology experiments, and RNA extraction, in order to examine the expression of c-kit, STRA8 and PCNA genes.
Our data showed that SCs transplantation could notably increase the total sperm count and the number of testicular cells, such as spermatogonia, primary spermatocyte, round spermatid, SCs and Leydig cells, compared to the control, DMSO and busulfan groups. Furthermore, the result showed that the expression of c-kit and STRA8 were significantly decreased in busulfan and busulfan/SCs groups, at 8 weeks after the last injection (p<0.001), but no significant decrease was found for PCNA, compared to the control and DMSO groups (P<0.05).
These findings suggest that SCs transplantation may be beneficial as a practical approach for therapeutic strategies in reproductive and regenerative medicine. We further highlighted the essential applications that might provide a mechanism for correcting fertility in males, suffering from cell deformity.
背景/目的：本研究旨在评估支持细胞（SCs）移植的潜在及重要应用，并探讨其对无精子症小鼠精子发生过程的影响。
本研究选用18只成年小鼠（28 - 30克），分为四个实验组：（1）对照组，（2）溶剂组（2%二甲亚砜（DMSO），10微升），（3）白消安组，（4）白消安+SCs组（1×10⁴个细胞/微升）。SCs取自4周龄小鼠的睾丸，麻醉后，将10微升SCs悬液（1×10⁴个细胞/微升）在3 - 5分钟内注入每个睾丸，随后从附睾尾部采集精子样本。之后，对动物实施安乐死并采集睾丸样本用于组织病理学实验及RNA提取，以检测c-kit、STRA8和PCNA基因的表达。
我们的数据显示，与对照组、DMSO组和白消安组相比，SCs移植可显著增加精子总数以及睾丸细胞数量，如精原细胞、初级精母细胞、圆形精子细胞、SCs和睾丸间质细胞。此外，结果表明，在最后一次注射后8周，白消安组和白消安/SCs组中c-kit和STRA8的表达显著降低（p<0.001），但与对照组和DMSO组相比，PCNA无显著降低（P<0.05）。
这些发现表明，SCs移植作为生殖和再生医学治疗策略的一种实用方法可能有益。我们进一步强调了其重要应用，可能为纠正患有细胞畸形的男性的生育能力提供一种机制。
