UrologyPostnatal germ cell development during first 18 months of life in testes from boys with non-syndromic cryptorchidism and complete or partial androgen insensitivity syndrome
Section snippets
Patients and specimens
Total of 42 testicular biopsies from 35 non-syndromic patients with unilateral UDT (n = 16), bilateral UDT (n = 19), and partial or complete androgen insensitivity (PAIS, n = 2 or CAIS, n = 5) from 10 days to 18 months of age were used for the study. Testis position for all UDT samples were either inguinal or the external inguinal ring, CAIS were 4 inguinal and 1 abdominal, PAIS were labioscrotal. The UDT specimens were fixed in Stieve's fixative at the time of orchidopexy in, Denmark (ethics
Results
Sox9 labeled the nuclei of all Sertoli cells, therefore, unstained cells (Sox9−) in testicular tubules were clearly distinguished as germ cells. The number of Sertoli cells per tubule showed a decreasing trend with increase of age (Fig. 1A) and the number of germ cells per tubule showed a sharp decrease with increasing of age (Fig. 1B), whereas the percentage of empty tubules (tubules without germ cells) was increased with age (Fig. 1C) for unilateral, bilateral and CAIS UDT, however, there was
Discussion
During the first 18 months of age, in children with unilateral and bilateral UDT the number of both Sertoli cells and germ cells per tubule were found to be decreasing and the percentage of empty tubules was increased with age. A similar trend was observed in children with CAIS/PAIS. These results are similar to previous findings [9], [12]. The number of germ cells per tubule from CAIS testes was significantly higher than unilateral and bilateral UDT (Fig. 1D). This may be due to a lack of
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
Acknowledgement
We sincerely thank Dr. Angela Pezic at Molecular Epidemiology, Murdoch Children's Research Institute for help on the linear regression analysis.
This study was supported by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (Grant Number APP1144752) and the Victorian Government's Operational Infrastructure Support Programme.
References (14)
- et al.
The diagnostic impact of testicular biopsies for intratubular germ cell neoplasia in cryptorchid boys and the subsequent risk of testicular cancer in men with prepubertal surgery for syndromic or non-syndromic cryptorchidism
J Pediatr Surg
(2017) - et al.
Gonocyte transformation to spermatogonial stem cells occurs earlier in patients with undervirilisation syndromes
J Pediatr Surg
(2014) - et al.
Immunofluorescent analysis of testicular biopsies with germ cell and Sertoli cell markers shows significant MVH negative germ cell depletion with older age at Orchiopexy
J Urol
(2014) - et al.
Oct4-GFP expression during transformation of gonocytes into spermatogonial stem cells in the perinatal mouse testis
J Pediatr Surg
(2015) - et al.
The significance of postnatal gonadotropin surge for testicular development in normal and cryptorchid testes
J Urol
(1986) - et al.
A review and meta-analysis of hormonal treatment of cryptorchidism
J Clin Endocrinol Metab
(1995) - et al.
Germ cell development in the postnatal testis: the key to prevent malignancy in cryptorchidism?
Front Endocrinol (Lausanne)
(2012)