Spermatogonial stem cells as a therapeutic alternative for fertility preservation of prepubertal boys

Abstract

Spermatogonial stem cells, which exist in the testicles since birth, are progenitors cells of male gametes. These cells are critical for the process of spermatogenesis, and not able to produce mature sperm cells before puberty due to their dependency of hormonal stimuli. This characteristic of the reproductive system limits the preservation of fertility only to males who are able to produce an ejaculate. This fact puts some light on the increase in survival rates of childhood cancer over the past decades because of improvements in the diagnosis and effective treatment in pediatric cancer patients. Therefore, we highlight one of the most important challenges concerning male fertility preservation that is the toxic effect of cancer therapy on reproductive function, especially the spermatogenesis. Currently, the experimental alternative for fertility preservation of prepubertal boys is the testicular tissue cryopreservationfor, for future isolation and spermatogonial stem cells transplantation, in order to restore the spermatogenesis. We present a brief review on isolation, characterization and culture conditions for the in vitro proliferation of spermatogonial stem cells, as well as the future perspectives as an alternative for fertility preservation in prepubertal boys. The possibility of restoring male fertility constitutes a research tool with an huge potential in basic and applied science. The development of these techniques may be a hope for the future of fertility preservation in cases that no other options exist, e.g, pediatric cancer patients.

Possible use of spermatogonial stem cells in the treatment of male infertility

“…С конца 1990-х годов стало возможным восстановление сперматогенеза в моделях на животных. С тех пор достигнут большой прогресс в изучении характерных особенностей сперматогониальных стволовых клеток, возможности поддержания их in vitro путем разработки культуральных систем [42,47,48].…”

Sperm count and future challenges for cancer patients

“…In such cases, cryopreservation of testicular tissue (Isolated spermatogonial stem cells) is a viable means of preserving fertility. 19 However, still there is challenge in pre-pubertal male's testicular tissue cryopreservation. Although spermatogonial cells are present but mature spermatozoa are absent.…”

Updates on the Effect of Mycotoxins on Male Reproductive Efficiency in Mammals

“…Second, isolating Sertoli or Leydig cells is generally a time-consuming and very delicate process that also necessitates the availability of fresh tissue, complex enzymatic digestion steps of the seminiferous tubules, followed by segregation of the various cells using flow cytometry and adhesion purification techniques such as DSA-lectin or gradient centrifugation. Moreover, with spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) culture being essential to male infertility therapy in humans [206], endangered species preservation, and transgenic animal technology, isolation of these cells have been exhaustively described in the literature [206,207,208,209,210,211,212,213,214], though the survival of these cells beyond 48 to 96 hours in culture is challenging [211,212,215] as they require continuous hormonal or co-culture stimulation. Additionally, identifying the various cells before culture can prove challenging [207,208,210,212,213,216,217], thus many adopt marker-assisted selection following culture, though this technique only reports a percentage of each cell type in the culture.…”