Establishment of animal model for in vitro spermatogenesis by heterotopic grafting of neonatal mouse testis

Objective:To establish an in vitro model for the development of mouse spermatogenic cellsinto sperm by using the immunodefective mouse as the incubator.Methods:Tissue grafting was per-formed using testis from 1-2 days old Kun-ming mice as donor tissue and immunodefective mice as recipi-ents;the expression of TESK1 mRNA in grafts was determined by RT-PCR and the spermatogenesis fur-ther observed with histological analysis of grafts.Results:Molecular biological and histological analysesshowed that grafts post-grafting not only expressed TESK1 mRNA as in normal mouse testis,but also ex-hibited similarities in the structure of seminiferous tubules and component of spermatogenic cells,inclu-ding sperms.Conclusion:Spermatogenic cells heterotopically grafted in vitro could continuously growand complete spermatogenesis and finally develop into sperm.