BACKGROUND<\/p>\n
A key step in studying the biology of spermatogonia is to determine their global gene expression profile. However, disassociation of these cells from the testis may alter their profile to a considerable degree. To characterize the molecular phenotype of human spermatogonia, including spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs), within their cognate microenvironment, a rare subtype of human defective spermatogenesis was exploited in which spermatogonia were the only germ cell type.<\/p>\n
METHODS<\/p>\n
The global expression profile of these samples was assessed on the Affymetrix microarray platform and compared with tissues showing homogeneous Sertoli-cell-only appearance; selected genes were validated by quantitative real-time PCR and immunohistochemistry on disparate sample sets.<\/p>\n
RESULTS<\/p>\n
Highly significant differences in gene expression levels correlated with the appearance of spermatogonia, including 239 best candidates of human spermatogonially expressed genes. Specifically, fibroblast growth factor receptor 3 (FGFR3), desmoglein 2 (DSG2), E3 ubiquitin ligase c-CBL (casitas B-cell lymphoma), cancer\/testis antigen NY-ESO-1 (CTAG1A\/B), undifferentiated embryonic cell transcription factor 1 (UTF1) and synaptosomal-associated protein, 91 kDa homolog (SNAP91) were shown to represent specific biomarkers of human spermatogonia.<\/p>\n
CONCLUSIONS<\/p>\n
These biomarkers, specifically the surface markers FGFR3 and DSG2, may facilitate the isolation and enrichment of human stem and\/or progenitor spermatogonia and thus lay a foundation for studies of long-term maintenance of human SSCs\/progenitor cells, spermatogonial self-renewal, clonal expansion and differentiation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BACKGROUND A key step in studying the biology of spermatogonia is to determine their global gene expression profile. However, disassociation of these cells from the testis may alter their profile to a considerable degree. To characterize the molecular phenotype of … Continue reading