2010 - 19th Annual NC State Undergraduate Research Spring Symposium

Session Time : 4/22/10 12:15 PM - 4/22/10 1:30 PM

Content Area : Animal Science

Student Presenters :
Angela Diane Moore Animal Science

Mentors and/or Co-Authors :
Robert Petters Animal Science

Abstract Title : Culture and characterization of germ cells from canine seminiferous tubules

Abstract :
Limited research has been done on the culture and maintenance of male canine germ cells in vitro. Canine testes are readily available and could be used as a model system with some advantages over more traditional systems such as rodents. Unlike the female mammalian germ line, the male germ cell component is, upon puberty, actively differentiating into spermatozoa wile a self-maintaining and renewing stem cell line is also maintained. The potential usefulness of these stem cells in basic research, genetic modeling and therapeutics is great. Therefore, we designed an experiment in which seminiferous tubules, the storage site of male germ cells, were cultured and observed. We analyzed the success of the culture system by looking for the presence of germ cells using several proteins known to be exclusively expressed in male germ cells at various stages of spermatogenesis. The protein markers used were STRA8, VASA, DAZL, and Nanog. There were STRA8, VASA, and Nanog positive cells present during culture whereas there were fewer DAZL expressing cells. Expression of the proteins depended on the length of time in culture, indicating that the germ cells were present and continued to develop in culture. Further, the canine cells from seminiferous tubules seemed to grow in culture better than similar cells from another model system, the pig. Our studies point to the utility of the dog as a model system for studying in vitro development and use of spermatogonial stem cells.