Petasites japonicus Stimulates the Proliferation of Mouse Spermatogonial Stem Cells
Fig 4
The effect of PJB on spermatogonial stem cell activity.
Spermatogonial stem cell activity was assessed by counting the number of colonies derived from donor spermatogonial stem cells after transplantation. (A) Dark-field fluorescence images of a recipient testis transplanted with germ cells that were cultured with 10 μg/mL PJB. The donor spermatogenic colonies in the recipient seminiferous tubules are a distinct green color. (B) Cryosections of donor-derived germ cell colonies. Complete spermatogenesis was detected as the presence of sperm (white arrow) in the lumen of the seminiferous tubules. Scale bars: (A) = 2 mm; (B) = 50 μm. (C) The number of colonies per 105 transplanted cells. (D) Relative number of SSCs recovered after culture with 10 μg/mL PJB. Values are mean ± SEM (n = 3 cultured and transplanted samples). The total number of mice/testes analyzed in the control (cultured without extract), PJM (cultured with 10 μg/mL PJM), and PJB (cultured with 10 μg/mL PJB) group was 5/9, 6/12, and 6/12, respectively. Asterisks indicate a significant difference (P < 0.05) compared to the control.