A durable model of human germ cell precursors

Human PGCLCs have been developed at several research centers, including a laboratory led by Toshi Shioda, MD, at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and the Cancer Research Center at Harvard Medical School
.

Natural PGCs exist only in embryos
.

"My main interest is to use pgclc for toxicology studies to understand how exposure to chemicals or prescription drugs affects human reproduction,
" Shioda said.

He and his colleagues used these cells to study in the lab how chemical exposure in women, such as general anesthesia, causes genetic changes that can be passed on to offspring without causing DNA mutations
.

They also used the model to study how PGCs turn into testicular cancer, the most common malignancy in boys and young men
.

The problem is that hPGCLCs don't survive very long in the lab and lose their germ cell-like characteristics quickly unless they are carefully cared for and treated with serum or added chemicals
.

But Shioda and colleagues explain reporting in the Journal of Stem Cells that they have developed a method to maintain the germ-cell-like function of hPGCLCs in cell culture without the need for special handling, and the cells survive and continue to replicate for at least five months without losing the original germ- cell-like features

Using these cells, they have successfully generated hPGCLCs carrying various genetic mutations associated with testicular cancer, and are working to create the first synthetic tumor model of human testicular cancer with well-defined genetic mutations to aid research in cancer prevention and treatment

This work was supported by endowments from the RICBAC Foundation and the Escher Autism Fund, as well as grants from the National Institutes of Health

Journal Reference :

1. Mutsumi Kobayashi, Misato Kobayashi, Junko Odajima, Keiko Shioda, Young Sun Hwang, Kotaro Sasaki, Pranam Chatterjee, Christian Kramme, Richie E.