Putative human male germ cells from bone marrow stem cells.
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.
Drusenheimer
Nadja
N
Institute of Human Genetics, University of Göttingen, D-37073 Göttingen.
Wulf
Gerald
G
Nolte
Jessica
J
Lee
Jae Ho
JH
Dev
Arvind
A
Dressel
Ralf
R
Gromoll
Jörg
J
Schmidtke
Jörg
J
Engel
Wolfgang
W
Nayernia
Karim
K
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
D015415:Biomarkers; D014212:Tretinoin