Effects of Sertoli Cell Transplantation on Spermatogenesis in Azoospermic Mice.

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.

METHODS

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.

RESULTS

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).

CONCLUSION

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.