Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
In contrast, primate caput epididymides are tightly adhered to the testis, the efferent
ducts are not easily accessible, and rete testes are more centrally located in the testis.
Thus, to visualize and access the rete testis, Schlatt and colleagues (Schlatt et al.
1999
) initially described a method employing ultrasound to guide a needle into the
rete testis space [Fig.
11.3a
; (Hermann, Rodriguez and Orwig, unpublished)].
Fig. 11.3
Ultrasound-guided rete testis injection for SSC transplantation in primates. (
a
) To test the
regenerative potential of nonhuman primate SSCs to produce complete spermatogenesis in the ablated
testes of infertile recipient animals, it is necessary to transplant recipient testes using an ultrasound-
guided rete testis injection procedure. (
b
) A needle is introduced transcrotally into the testicular paren-
chyma and the tip of the needle is placed into the rete testis space for retrograde injection of testis cell
suspensions that contain SSCs. For demonstration purposes, trypan blue dye (10%) was injected into a
rhesus testis, allowing visualization of injection success. (
c
) After recovering the injected testis, the
testis is grossly normal and trypan blue dye was observed in the ductules of the caput epididymis
(
inset
), which is contiguous via the efferent ducts with the rete testis, confirmed the success of these
injections. (
d
) Bisection of the transplanted testis revealed that blue dye radiated from the rete testis into
approximately 60-80% of seminiferous tubules. (
e
,
f
) Microscopic evaluation of intact seminiferous
tubules from this recipient testis confirmed the presence of trypan blue dye in the lumen of the semi-
niferous tubules. Hermann, Rodriguez and Orwig, unpublished
Search WWH ::
Custom Search