A simple and rapid technique to isolate enriched populations of spermatocytes and spermatids from the immature rat...

A technique was developed to obtain enriched populations of large numbers of primary spermatacytes (70--81%) and of spermatids (75%) from immature rat testes (21--23 and 38 days old respectively) in a simple and rapid fashion. The cells were nearly all viable and membrane preservation was good. The testicular cells were dispersed by a mild mechanical treatment combined with an incubation with purified collagenase, and the cell populations were separated by centrifugation in a discontinuous dextran gradient in a cell culture medium.