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Title: RESTORATION OF SPERMATOGENESIS AND MALE FERTILITY BY TRANSPLANTATION OF DISPERSED TESTICULAR CELLS IN THE CHICKEN

Author
item TREFIL, PAVEL - BIOPHARM
item MICAKOVA, ALENA - BIOPHARM
item MUCKSOVA, JITKA - BIOPHARM
item HEJNAR, JIRI - ACAD SCI CZECH REPUB
item BRILLARD, JEAN - INSTITUT NATL AGRON
item Bakst, Murray
item KALINA, JIRI - BIOPHARM
item POPLSTEIN, MARTIN - BIOPHARM

Submitted to: Biology of Reproduction
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/14/2006
Publication Date: 6/28/2006
Citation: Trefil, P., Micakova, A., Mucksova, J., Hejnar, J., Brillard, J.P., Bakst, M.R., Kalina, J., Poplstein, M. 2006. Restoration of spermatogenesis and male fertility by transplantation of dispersed testicular cells in the chicken. Biology of Reproduction. 75:575-581.

Interpretive Summary: The transplantation of cells isolated from the seminiferous tubules one a donor male into the sterilized recipient's testes has been widely used in mammals for conventional breeding as well as for the production of transgeneic progeny. This has never been successfully accomplished with poultry. We have developed the techniques for the transfer of dispersed testicular cells from one chicken into another recipient chicken that had been sterilized. Following this procedure, the seminiferous epithelium was partially replentished in about 50% of recipient males with semen being manually collected about 5 wk after the transfer. If the donor of the dispersed testicular cells was immature, the spermatogenesis in the recipient too longer to commence and the first semen was collected about 10 wk after the transfer. This is the first successful report of germ cell transfer from donor to recipient in poultry. We are currently work on methods to improve the efficiency of the transfer process in order to get a more complete dispersion of spermatogonial stem cells into the the recipients testes. This work establishes the groundwork for addition studies addressing germ-line transmision of gene of economic importance in poultry, a technology which currently is very inefficient.

Technical Abstract: Transplantation of male germ cells into sterilized recipients has been widely used in mammals for conventional breeding as well as for transgenesis. This study presents a workable approach for germ cell transplantation between chicken males. Testicular cells from adult and pre-pubertal donors were dispersed and transplanted by injection directly into the testes of recipient males sterilized by repeated gamma irradiation. We describe the re-population of the recipient seminiferous epithelium up to the production of heterologous spermatozoa in about 50% of transplanted males. In comparison to males transplanted with testicular cell preparations from adult donors in which the first ejaculates were recovered about 5 weeks after transfer, a substantial interval (about 10 wks) was necessary to obtain ejaculates after the transfer of testicular cells from pre-pubertal donors. However, in both cases, about 20% of transplanted chicken males produced ejaculates capable of engendering progeny expressing donor genes in their phenotype.