胚胎干细胞、成体干细胞向雄性生殖细胞分化的研究进展

Study Progress on Embryonic Stem Cells and Adult Stem Cells Derivated into Male Germ Cells

胚胎干细胞是一种具有发育全能性的细胞系,理论上可分化成机体的各种组织细胞,包括生殖细胞。成体干细胞是一种多能干细胞,具有自我更新及多向分化潜能,甚至能打破胚层的界限,横向分化为其他胚层的特化组织细胞,理论上成体干细胞在一定条件下也可分化为生殖细胞。人类胚胎干细胞的研究虽然取得了突破性进展,由于诱导分化技术不成熟,存在免疫排斥、致瘤性和伦理问题等,近期难以用来治疗疾病。与胚胎干细胞相比,成体干细胞则可克服这些缺点,其应用前景日益被看好。由于生殖细胞是遗传物质的传递者,生殖细胞分化的研究具有深刻的科学意义。如果成体干细胞可向雄性生殖细胞分化,应用于临床,那将为治疗男性不育提供了一条新的治疗途径,潜能难以估量。现就胚胎干细胞及成体干细胞向雄性生殖细胞分化方面的研究进展作一综述。

Embryonic stem cells（ ESCs）, a kind of totipotent cells, can differentiate into cell type of the 3 germ layers. Adult stem cells （ASCs） are pluripotent stem cells, which can selfrenew and transdifferentiate into a completely different tissue derivative cells. Thus ASCs can transdifferentiate into germ cells in a certain condition. Great progress has made for the study on human ESCs. However,use of ESCs faces the immunological rejection, oncogenicity and ethical controversies problems, and these limit their uses for treatment of human diseases. On contrast,ASCs can advoid these problems, and they may have a better perspective. Germ cells as carriers of genetic materials, are worth of studying. If male germ cells can be derived from ASCs,this will open the possibilities for the use of these cells for male infertility in clinical application. In this review,we will introduce the progress on derivation of male germ cells from ESCs and ASCs,