Spermatogonial cells are adult stem cells which are the source of men's lifelong supply of sperm. Scientists from Germany suggest that these testicular germ cells appear to be able to mimic embryonic stem cells and may become any cell in the body capable of treating a wide variety of illnesses.

According to Thomas Skutella and colleagues at the University of Tubingen, Germany, they biopsied the cells from human testes and grew them in laboratory cultures. With the right set of growth factors and chemical signals, the cells were able to duplicate the characteristics of embryonic stem cells, morphing into any other kind of cell, including heart, bone, pancreas, and nerve cells.

Skutella and his team reported in the early online edition of the journal Nature that they have developed a culture method for establishing human adult germline stem cells from testicular biopsies. "These cells changed their properties, losing characteristics of spermatogonial cells and acquiring characteristics ... similar to those of human embryonic stem cells."

Stem cells have the amazing potential to develop into many different cell types in the body, dividing without limit to replenish other cells as long as the person or animal is still alive. They serve as a sort of repair system for the body. When a stem cell divides, each new cell has the potential to either remain a stem cell or become another type of cell with a more specialized function, such as a muscle cell, a red blood cell, or a brain cell.

Embryonic stem cells, as their name suggests, are derived from embryos that develop from in vitro-fertilized eggs, in an in vitro fertilization clinic, not from eggs fertilized in a woman's body. They are then donated for research purposes with the donors' consent. The embryos from which human embryonic stem cells are derived are typically four or five days old and are a hollow microscopic ball of cells called the blastocyst.

There are several other research teams finding ways to reprogram other kinds of adult cells into stem cells. And Joshua M. Hare, MD, director of the interdisciplinary stem cell institute at the University of Miami said that the future of the testis-derived cells is not yet clear.

"Everyone is trying to come up with the best source of stem cells and to do it in the easiest way," said Hare. "We have plenty of adult stem cells that seem to be very promising for future treatments. So this notion of embryo-like stem cells is interesting and important, but whether biopsying people's testicles will be the wave of the future remains to be seen."

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