In Vitro Propagation of XXY Undifferentiated Mouse Spermatogonia: Model for Fertility Preservation in Klinefelter Syndrome Patients

• Published in: International journal of molecular sciences Vol. 23; no. 1; p. 173
• Main Authors: Galdon, Guillermo, Deebel, Nicholas A, Zarandi, Nima Pourhabibi, Pettenati, Mark J, Kogan, Stanley, Wang, Christina, Swerdloff, Ronald S, Atala, Anthony, Lue, Yanhe, Sadri-Ardekani, Hooman
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 24.12.2021; MDPI
• Subjects: Animals; Biopsy; Cell culture; Chromosomes; Cryopreservation; Disease Models, Animal; Fertility; Fertility Preservation; Flow cytometry; Fluorescence; Fluorescence in situ hybridization; Gene expression; Hyperplasia; In vitro fertilization; Infertility; Klinefelter Syndrome; Klinefelter's syndrome; Male; male infertility; Mice; Patients; Phenotypes; Population; Preservation; Propagation; Puberty; Semen Preservation; Sex chromosomes; Somatic cells; Sperm; Spermatogonia; spermatogonia stem cells; Stem cells; Supernumerary; Testes; Testosterone; Klinefelter syndrome; spermatogonia; fertility preservation; spermatogonia stem cells; male infertility
• DOI: 10.3390/ijms23010173
• ISSN: 1422-0067; 1661-6596

Klinefelter syndrome (KS) is characterized by a masculine phenotype, supernumerary sex chromosomes (usually XXY), and spermatogonial stem cell (SSC) loss in their early life. Affecting 1 out of every 650 males born, KS is the most common genetic cause of male infertility, and new fertility preservation strategies are critically important for these patients. In this study, testes from 41, XXY prepubertal (3-day-old) mice were frozen-thawed. Isolated testicular cells were cultured and characterized by qPCR, digital PCR, and flow cytometry analyses. We demonstrated that SSCs survived and were able to be propagated with testicular somatic cells in culture for up to 120 days. DNA fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) showed the presence of XXY spermatogonia at the beginning of the culture and a variety of propagated XY, XX, and XXY spermatogonia at the end of the culture. These data provide the first evidence that an extra sex chromosome was lost during innate SSC culture, a crucial finding in treating KS patients for preserving and propagating SSCs for future sperm production, either in vitro or in vivo. This in vitro propagation system can be translated to clinical fertility preservation for KS patients.