近日，《亚洲男性学杂志》Asian Journal of Andrology网版发表了一篇以色列与德国科学家合作完成的题为《软琼脂培养基中雄鼠胚胎细胞向精细胞分化》“Differentiation of murine male germ cells to spermatozoa in a soft agar culture system”的研究论著，一时间在全球范围内引起热烈的讨论。英国《每日电讯报》、以色列《耶路撒冷邮报》等众多媒体及网站竞相报道了这一研究成果，《每日电讯报》还对文章作者，以色列Ben-Gurion大学的Dr Mahmoud Huleihe和德国Munster大学的Dr Stefan Schlatt作了进一步的访谈，并邀请男性不育领域的知名专家对此进行评论。
目前，即便借助最先进的显微外科手术，仍有数千万不育男性无法通过自身条件孕育自己的后代，而是需要借助于捐献的精子拥有后代。若《亚洲男性学杂志》报道的此项研究成果能够转化到人类细胞，转化到临床男性不育的治疗中，这对那些无法产生可育精子的不育男性和无法冻存精子的青春期前男性癌症患者来说是一个革命性的新治疗方案。
体外培养可育的精子目前是男性不育领域的一个热门及难点，诸多领域的科学家正在为此而努力。Dr Mahmoud Huleihe和Dr Stefan Schlatt的实验小组也将在此基础上继续努力，以期早日为人类造福。
《亚洲男性学杂志》一直以来都紧扣科研前沿，力争发表有重大科学，临床及社会意义的学术论著。《亚洲男性学杂志》也将继续关注此文章作者的研究进展以及男科学领域内的其他焦点话题，快速有效地发表有意义有价值的前沿男科学科研成果，推动男科学医学的进步，造福人类。（生物谷Bioon.com）
doi:10.1038/aja.2011.112
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Differentiation of murine male germ cells to spermatozoa in a soft agar culture system
Mahmoud Abu Elhija1, Eitan Lunenfeld2, Stefan Schlatt3 and Mahmoud Huleihel1
Establishment of an in vitro system that allows the development of testicular germ cells to sperm will be valuable for studies of spermatogenesis and future treatments for male infertility. In the present study, we developed in vitro culture conditions using three-dimensional agar culture system (SACS), which has the capacity to induce testicular germ cells to reach the final stages of spermatogenesis, including spermatozoa generation. Seminiferous tubules from testes of 7-day-old mice were enzymatically dissociated, and intratubular cells were cultured in the upper layer of the SACS in RPMI medium supplemented with fetal calf serum (FCS). The lower layer of the SACS contained only RPMI medium supplemented with FCS. Colonies in the upper layer were isolated after 14 and 28 days of culture and were classified according to their size. Immunofluorescence and real-time PCR were used to analyse specific markers expressed in undifferentiated and differentiated spermatogonia (Vasa, Dazl, OCT-4, C-Kit, GFR-α-1, CD9 and α-6-integrin), meiotic cells (LDH, Crem-1 and Boule) and post-meiotic cells (Protamine-1, Acrosin and SP-10). Our results reveal that it is possible to induce mouse testicular pre-meiotic germ cell expansion and induce their differentiation to spermatozoa in SACS. The spermatozoa showed normal morphology and contained acrosomes. Thus, our results demonstrate that SACS could be used as a novel in vitro system for the maturation of pre-meiotic mouse germ cells to post-meiotic stages and morphologically-normal spermatozoa.
