In vitro culture and morphological characterization of prepubertal buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) putative spermatogonial stem cell

Purpose
Spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) have the unique ability both to self-renew and to produce progeny that undergo differentiation to spermatozoa. The present study has been carried out to develop a method to purify and enrich the pure populations of spermatogonial stem cell like cells in buffalo.

Methods
The spermatogonial cells were isolated from testes of 3–7 month old buffalo calves and disaggregated by double enzymatic digestion. Mixed population of isolated cells were then plated on Datura stramonium agglutinin (DSA) lectin coated dishes for attachment of Sertoli cells. The desired cells were obtained from suspension medium after 18 h of incubation and then loaded on discontinuous density gradient using percoll (20–65 %) and different types of spermatogonia cells were obtained at interface of each layer. These cells were cultured in vitro.

Results
Spermatogonial cells isolated have spherical outline and two or three eccentrically placed nucleoli, created a colony after proliferation during first week or immediately after passage. After 7–10 days of culture, the resulted developed colonies of spermatogonial cells expressed the spermatogonial specific genes like Plzf and VASA; and other pluripotency related markers viz. alkaline phosphtase, DBA, CD9, CD90, SSEA-1, OCT-4, NANOG and REX-1.

Conclusion
Our results show that the isolated putative spermatogonial stem cells exhibit the expression of pluripotency related and spermatogonial specific genes. This study may help to establish a long term culture system for buffalo spermatogonia.