Effect of selenium on freezing-thawing damage of mice spermatogonial stem cell: a model to preserve fertility in childhood cancers.

Background: During treatment of childhood cancers, fertility of boys may be affected. Therefore, freezing spermatogonial stem cell (SSC) is recommended. However, freezing-thawing process may cause damage to SSCs. This study was conducted to evaluate protective effects of selenium on freezing-thawing damage of mice SSCs using investigation of cell viability and investigation of apoptosis related genes expression including , , , and .

Methods: SSCs were extracted from 80 6-day-old mice. The SSCs were divided into four groups: cryopreservation along with selenium (low and high dose), vitrification along with selenium (low and high dose), cryopreservation control, and vitrification control. Trypan blue staining and real-time polymerase chain reaction (real-time PCR) were used to investigate cell viability and gene expression, respectively.

Result: Comparison of cell viability in the experimental groups did not show a significant association. Expression of and was significantly lower in cryopreservation group with low-dose selenium. Expression of was significantly lower in cryopreservation group with high-dose selenium. Expression of and was significantly lower in vitrification group with low-dose selenium, and expression of was significantly upper. Expression of and was significantly lower in vitrification group with high-dose selenium, and expression of was significantly upper (P<0.001).

Conclusions: Selenium had dose dependent effect on apoptosis related genes profile. The only evident effect was the effect of low-dose selenium in cryopreservation on inhibition of apoptosis via extrinsic pathway.