Stem Cells
Vahid Akbarinejad; Parviz Tajik; Mansoureh Movahedin; Reza Youssefi
Volume 8, Issue 1 , March 2017, , Pages 7-13
Abstract
Testosterone is believed to play a significant role in spermatogenesis, but its contribution to the process of spermatogenesis is not completely understood. Given that extracellular matrix (ECM) facilitates differentiation of spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) during culture, the present study was conducted ...
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Testosterone is believed to play a significant role in spermatogenesis, but its contribution to the process of spermatogenesis is not completely understood. Given that extracellular matrix (ECM) facilitates differentiation of spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) during culture, the present study was conducted to elucidate whether testosterone contribute to the permissive effect of ECM on SSCs differentiation. In experiment 1, testosterone production was measured in testicular cells cultured for 12 days on ECM or plastic (control). In experiment 2, testosterone production was assessed in testicular cells cultured on ECM or plastic (control) and exposed to different concentrations of hCG. In experiment 3, the gene expression of factors involved in testosterone production was analyzed. Testosterone concentration was lower in ECM than in the control group in experiment 1 (p < 0.05). In experiment 2, testosterone concentration was increased in response to hCG in both groups but cells cultured on ECM were more responsive to hCG than those cultured on plastic (p < 0.05). In the experiment 3, qRT-PCR revealed the inhibitory effect of ECM on the gene expression of steroidogenic acute regulatory protein (StAR) (p < 0.05). Nevertheless, the expression of LH receptor was greater in ECM-exposed than in unexposed cells (p < 0.05). In conclusion, the present study showed that inhibiting the expression of StAR, ECM could lower testosterone production by Leydig cells during in vitro culture. In addition, the results indicated that ECM could augment the responsiveness of Leydig cells to hCG through stimulating the expression of LH receptor.
Stem Cells
Somayeh Naderi; Malihe Akbarzadeh Niaki; Nasser Mahdavi Shahri; Maryam Moghaddam Matin; Masoud Fereidoni; Fatemeh Naseri
Volume 6, Issue 3 , September 2015, , Pages 251-255
Abstract
The aim of this study was to investigate the interactions between rat intestine decellularized scaffold and human adipose derived mesenchymal stem cells. Rat large intestine was dissected in fragments and decellularized by physicochemical methods. The scaffolds were loaded by human adipose derived mesenchymal ...
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The aim of this study was to investigate the interactions between rat intestine decellularized scaffold and human adipose derived mesenchymal stem cells. Rat large intestine was dissected in fragments and decellularized by physicochemical methods. The scaffolds were loaded by human adipose derived mesenchymal stem cells expressing green fluorescent protein. Microscopic sections were prepared from the scaffolds after two weeks of culture with stem cells and studied by histological methods. The interactions of scaffolds with MSCs were also studied by electron microscopy. Histological and electron microscopy studies revealed human mesenchymal stem cell adhesion, migration, division and maintenance during the 14 days of culture in vitro. According to the results, scaffolds prepared from rat intestine matrix could be a suitable scaffold for studying in vitro cell behaviors such as division, migration and attachment. These various behaviors of cultured cells might be due to inductive effects of the extracellular matrix derived scaffold. However, more investigations are required to discover the exact effects of this scaffold and its interactions with mesenchymal stem cells.
