title: Putative human male germ cells from bone marrow stem cells.
abstract: Germ cells must develop along distinct male or female paths to produce the spermatozoa or oocyte required for sexual reproduction. Male germline stem cells maintain spermatogenesis in the postnatal human testis. Here we show that a small population of bone marrow cells is able to transdifferentiate to male germ cell-like cells. We show expression of early germ cell markers (Oct4, Fragilis, Stella and Vasa) and male germ cell specific markers (Dazl, TSPY, Piwil2 and Stra8) in these cells. Our preliminary findings provide direct evidence that human bone marrow cells can differentiate to putative male germ cells and identify bone marrow as a potential source of male germ cells that could sustain sperm production.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Human Genetics, University of Göttingen, D-37073 Göttingen.
authors.forename: Nadja
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Drusenheimer
authors.forename: Gerald
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wulf
authors.forename: Jessica
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Nolte
authors.forename: Jae Ho
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Arvind
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dev
authors.forename: Ralf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dressel
authors.forename: Jörg
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gromoll
authors.forename: Jörg
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Schmidtke
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Engel
authors.forename: Karim
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nayernia
mesh_terms: D015415:Biomarkers / Q000032:analysis; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D016130:Immunophenotyping; D008297:Male; D059630:Mesenchymal Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013094:Spermatozoa / Q000166:cytology*; D014212:Tretinoin / Q000494:pharmacology
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D014212:Tretinoin