| Budget Amount *help |
¥3,000,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,000,000)
Fiscal Year 2004: ¥700,000 (Direct Cost: ¥700,000)
Fiscal Year 2003: ¥1,300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,300,000)
Fiscal Year 2002: ¥1,000,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,000,000)
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| Research Abstract |
Erythropoietin (Epo), which is a survival factor for erythroid progenitor cells, has some relationship with acceleration of spermatogenesis. Spermatogenesis is impaired in cryptorchid testis, so we transferred rat Epo into cryptorchid testis by in vivo electroporation and investigated the effect on spermatogenesis. Under anesthesia with diethyl ether, rat right testis was surgically exposed with a mid-line incision. pCAGGS-Epo (50μg) was injected into testis, and square electric pulses were applied six times at 30 V with a time constant of 100 msec. We then cut gubernaculum, ligated efferent duct, and replaced testis in the abdominal cavity. At 1 or 2 weeks after injection, we weighed testis and calculated ratio of total number of germ cells to that of Sertoli cells (G/S ratio) to evaluate impairment of spermatogenesis. Testicular weight at 1 week after injection of pCAGGS-Epo and control plasmid was 0.85 ± 0.08g and 0.83 ± 0.03g (p = 0.788), and 0.62 ± 0.06g and 0.52 ± 0.02g at 2 weeks (p = 0.047), respectively. Impairment of spermatogenesis was already recognized histologically at 1 week. More sperm and spermatid were detected in testis with pCAGGS-Epo than that with pCAGGS. At 2 weeks, spermatid and sperm were hardly detected in both groups. G/S ratio at 1 week was 23.27 ± 6.80 and 18.63 ± 5.30 (p = 0.0078), and 7.16 ± 3.06 and 6.05 ± 1.58 (p = 0.1471) at 2 weeks, respectively. In conclusion, pCAGGS-Epo transfer into rat testis by in vivo electroporation can attenuate impairment of spermatogenesis.
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