Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 2, 2026
In Ovo Xenografting of Patient-Derived Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) Cells (PDX-ALL)
Published on: August 1, 2025
Eliminating acute lymphoblastic leukemia cells from human testicular cell cultures: a pilot study
Hooman Sadri-Ardekani1, Christa H Homburg2, Toni M M van Capel3
1Center for Reproductive Medicine, Women's and Children's Hospital, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Reproductive Biotechnology Research Center, Avicenna Research Institute, The Academic Center for Education, Culture and Research (ACECR), Tehran, Iran.
Objective:
To study whether acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) cells survive in a human testicular cell culture system.
Design:
Experimental laboratory study.
Setting:
Reproductive biology laboratory, academic medical center.
Patient(S):
Acute lymphoblastic leukemia cells from three patients and testicular cells from three other patients.
Intervention(S):
Acute lymphoblastic leukemia cells were cultured alone or in combination with testicular cells, at various concentrations, in a system that has recently been developed to propagate human spermatogonial stem cells.
Main Outcome Measure(S):
Viability of ALL and testicular cells during culture was evaluated by flow cytometry using markers for live/dead cells. Furthermore, the presence of ALL cells among testicular cells was determined by highly sensitive (1:10,000 to 1:100,000 cells) patient-specific antigen-receptor minimal residual disease polymerase chain reaction. The presence of spermatogonia at the end of culture was determined by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction for ZBTB16, UCHL1, and GPR125.
Result(S):
The ALL cells cultured separately did not survive beyond 14 days of culture. When cultured together with testicular cells, even at extremely high initial concentrations (40% ALL cells), ALL cells were undetectable beyond 26 days of culture. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction confirmed the presence of spermatogonia at the end of the culture period.
Conclusion(S):
Our pilot study shows that the described testicular cell culture system not only allows for efficient propagation of spermatogonial stem cells but also eliminates contaminating ALL cells.
