Vaccinia-related kinase 1 (VRK1) is a crucial protein kinase for mitotic regulation. VRK1 is known to play a role in germ cell development, and its deficiency results in sterility. Here we describe that VRK1 is essential for the maintenance of spermatogonial stem cells. To determine whether VRK1 plays a role in these cells, we assessed the population size of undifferentiated spermatogonia. Flow...

Spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) are responsible for the preservation of spermatogenesis throughout a man's adult reproductive life. Like other stem cells in the body, SSCs can either self-renew or differentiate. Recent research has shown that SSCs can be considered as multipotent stem cells which can differentiate into cell types other than exclusively gametes. SSC proliferation is a well regu...

background: in spermatogenesis, spermatogonial cells differentiate to the haploid gametes. it has been shown that spermatogenesis can be done at in vitro condition. in vitro spermatogenesis may provide an open window to treat male infertility. objective: the aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of a novel scaffold containing human serum albumin (hsa)/tri calcium phosphate nanoparticles...

Background: More than a decade work in preservation of male fertility by spermatogonial stem cell (SSC) transplantation in animal models as well as new discoveries about the nature of human SSCs has prompted an investigation into the possibility of an effective clinicalgrade procedure for isolation and cryopreservation of human testicular cells. Materials and Methods: Clinical-grade reagents, v...

Spermatogonial stem cell (SSC) transplantation has been shown to restore fertility in several species and may have application for treating some cases of male infertility (e.g., secondary to gonadotoxic therapy for cancer). To ensure safety of this fertility preservation strategy, methods are needed to isolate and enrich SSCs from human testis cell suspensions and also remove malignant contamin...

The use of a transgenic line of rats that express enhanced GFP (EGFP) exclusively in the germ line has allowed a separation of feeder layers and contaminating testis somatic cells from germ cells and the identification of a set of spermatogonial stem cell marker transcripts. With these molecular markers as a guide, we have now devised culture conditions where rat spermatogonial stem cells renew...