Identification of Stem Leydig Cells Derived from Pig Testicular Interstitium.

Shuai Yu,Chuanying Pan,Pengfei Zhang,Wuzi Dong,Wenxian Zeng

doi:10.1155/2017/2740272

Shuai Yu, Chuanying Pan + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/2740272

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Abstract

Stem Leydig cells (SLCs), located in the testicular interstitial compartment in the mammalian testes, are capable of differentiating to testosterone-synthesizing Leydig cells (LCs), thus providing a new strategy for treating testosterone deficiency. However, no previous reports have identified and cultured SLCs derived from the pig. The aim of the current study was to isolate, identify, and culture SLCs from pigs. Haematoxylin and eosin staining and immunochemical analysis showed that SLCs were present and that PDGFRα was mainly expressed in the pig testicular interstitium, indicating that PDGFRα was a marker for SLCs in the neonatal pig. In addition, reverse transcription-PCR results showed that SLC markers were expressed in primary isolated LCs, indicating that they were putative SLCs. The putative SLCs were subsequently cultured with a testicular fluid of piglets (pTF) medium. Clones formed after 7 days and the cells expressed PDGFRα. However, no clones grew in the absence of pTF, but the cells expressed CYP17A1, indicating that pTF could sustain the features of porcine SLCs. To summarize, we isolated porcine SLCs and identified their basic characteristics. Taken together, these results may help lay the foundation for research in the clinical application of porcine SLCs.

Highlights

Testosterone maintains the spermatogenesis process, and protects the function of androgen-dependent tissues [1, 2]
A number of spindle-shaped cells were found in the testicular interstitium in the postnatal 7 days’ and 2 months’ old porcine testes by Haematoxylin and Eosin (H&E) staining (Figure 1(a))
Immunochemical analyses showed that platelet-derived growth factor receptor α (PDGFRα) was mainly expressed in the testicular interstitium in postnatal 7-dayold pigs, while the expression of PDGFRα was low in the 2-month-old porcine testicular interstitium (Figure 1(b))

Summary

Introduction

Testosterone maintains the spermatogenesis process, and protects the function of androgen-dependent tissues [1, 2]. As the primary source of synthesizing and secreting testosterone in mammalian testes, adult Leydig cells (ALCs) play essential roles in maintaining vital movement [3]. SLCs were firstly identified and enriched from neonatal rat testes by Ge et al (2006), and further studies demonstrated that putative mouse and human SLCs had the capacity to differentiate into testosterone-producing cells [4, 7, 8]. According to these previous studies, some characteristics of SLCs were identified [4, 9, 10]. No SLCs studies had been carried out in other mammalian animals except in rats, mice, and humans

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