Morphologic and proliferative characteristics of goat type A spermatogonia in the presence of different sets of growth factors.

Purpose: The present study by using different growth factors was aimed to develop the best practical culture condition for purification of goat undifferentiated SSCs and their colonization under in vitro and in vivo conditions.

Methods: The enzymatically isolated SSCs obtained from one month old goat testes were cultured in DMEM plus FCS supplemented with different sets of growth factors (GDNF, LIF, bFGF, and EGF) for 2 weeks. At the end of each week, the morphological characteristics of cells and colonies alongside with purification rate of undifferentiated type A spermatogonia were evaluated by immunocytochemical staining and flow cytometry.

Isolation, identification, and culture of goat spermatogonial stem cells using c-kit and PGP9.5 markers.

Introduction: Presently the techniques for making transgenic animals are cumbersome, required costly instruments and trained man-power. The ability of spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) to integrate foreign genes has provided the opportunity for developing alternate methods for generation of transgenic animals. One of the big challenges in this field is development of the methods to identify and purify donor SSCs by antibody mediated cell sorting.