Osteogenetic ability of mouse spermatogonial stem cells cultured in vitro / 中国组织工程研究

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND:Spermatogonial stem cells are a kind of adult stem cells, which have self-renewal and differentiation potential, and can be differentiated into specific cells in vitro, suggesting that the spermatogonial stem cells may be possibly differentiated into osteoblasts. But the related research has not been reported. OBJECTIVE:To observe the biological characterization and osteogenic process of mouse spermatogonial stem cells cultured in vitro. METHODS:Spermatogonial stem cells were obtained from the testicle of mice aged 15-20 days, and were cultured on the feeder layer from bone marrow stroma cells in vitro. When cultured for 3 days, the cells were cultured in the conditioned medium (experimental group) and basic medium (control group). The cells proliferation capability and osteogenic property were examined by phase-contrast microscope, alkaline phosphatase activity and type I col agen immunofluorescence staining. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:Spermatogonial stem cells proliferated faster in the experiment group than in the control group. cells grew rapidly in colony-like shape in the conditioned medium at 3-6 days, the three-dimensional feeling enhanced, cellmass and clusters continued to increase in size, the extracellular matrix was increased in number and the cytoplasmic bridge was not obvious. After culture for 15 days, cells in the two groups were positive for alkaline phosphatase staining that the cytoplasmic membrane was dyed black. Under the fluorescent microscope, green fluorescence was visible in the experimental group, suggesting the cells in the experimental group was positive for type I col agen, but negative in the control group, which is similar with the biological characteristics of osteoblasts. These findings indicate that spermatogonial stem cells possess the osteogenic capability under induction conditions, which are expected to provide seed cells for bone tissue engineering.