Testicular recovery after irradiation differs in prepubertal and pubertal non-human primates, and can be enhanced by autologous germ cell transplantation

Abstract

We conclude that irradiation before puberty has a severe detrimental effect on outgrowth of seminiferous tubules. But, within the seminiferous epithelium, spermatogenetic recovery occurs at a low rate with no detectable relation to the maturity of the epithelium at irradiation. We also show that autologous testis cell transplantation can enhance spermatogenesis, but only in isolated cases.

Assessment of the optimal vitrification protocol for pre-pubertal mice testes leading to successful in vitro production of flagellated spermatozoa

“…In addition, for chemotherapy, alkylating agents and platinum analogues are highly gonadotoxic and lead to permanent azoospermia (Wallace et al, 2005). Furthermore, the pre-pubertal testis is not less vulnerable to the toxic effects of chemotherapy or radiotherapy compared with adult testis because of the constant turnover of early germ cells and the maturation process of Leydig cells, Sertoli cells and the other somatic cells of the different compartments during the infantile period (Jahnukainen et al, 2011).…”

Direct Differentiation of Human Pluripotent Stem Cells into Advanced Spermatogenic Cells: In Search of an In Vitro System to Model Male Factor Infertility

“…Several previous studies have shown the ability of human and non-human primates PSCs to differentiate into PGCs [3,17,29,44,45,55,56,62]. Although this cell lineage has the capability of restoring fertility in rodents, including primordial germ cells (PGCs) derived from mouse PSCs [6,20], SSCs remain the gold standard for colonizing cells which recapitulate spermatogenesis following transplantation [1,27]. Thus differentiating hPSCs into SSCs is an important step in the future ability for using patient-specific PSCs to restore fertility, as SSCs derived from PSCs can be transplanted into the sterilized testes to restore spermatogenesis (Fig.…”

“…Our goal was to differentiate PSCs into spermatogonial stem cell (SSC)-like cells because this spermatogenic lineage has shown an exceptional ability to re-colonize sterilized testes and thus restore fertility in certain species including mice and non-human primates (NHPs) [1,22,27]. One advantage of this strategy is that there are established protocols for culturing and expanding rodent SSCs in vitro [28].…”

Fertilitätsprotektion bei Männern

“…Der Grad der Hodenschädigung sowie der temporä-ren oder sogar permanenten Einschrän-kung der Fertilität ist dosis-und altersabhängig. [23]. Dies ist ein Hinweis darauf, dass die Zahl der bei der Noxe im Hoden vorhandenen und anschließend überle-benden Stammzellen kritisch für das Regenerationspotenzial des Hodens ist.…”