Differentiation of Bovine Spermatogonial Stem Cells into Osteoblasts

Spermatogonial stem cell (ssc) technologies provide multiple opportunities for research in the field of biotechnology and regenerative medicine. the therapeutic use of embryonic stem cells (escs) is restricted due to severe eth- ical and immunological concerns. therefore, we need a new pluripotent cell type. despite well-known role of germ cells in the gametogenesis, some facts apparently show their multipotentiality. in the present study, bovine sscs were co-cultured with sertoli cell for 7 days. sertoli cells and sscs were iden- tified by vimentin and oct-4 immunocytochemical staining method, respect- ively. in order to differentiate sscs into osteoblasts, we used consecutive in- ducer media without separation of the colonies. we characterized osteoblasts using alizarin red staining.