Petasites japonicus Stimulates the Proliferation of Mouse Spermatogonial Stem Cells

PLoS One. 2015 Jul 24;10(7):e0133077. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0133077. eCollection 2015.

Abstract

Oriental natural plants have been used as medical herbs for the treatment of various diseases for over 2,000 years. In this study, we evaluated the effect of several natural plants on the preservation of male fertility by assessing the ability of plant extracts to stimulate spermatogonial stem cell (SSC) proliferation by using a serum-free culture method. In vitro assays showed that Petasites japonicus extracts, especially the butanol fraction, have a significant effect on germ cells proliferation including SSCs. The activity of SSCs cultured in the presence of the Petasites japonicus butanol fraction was confirmed by normal colony formation and spermatogenesis following germ cell transplantation of the treated SSCs. Our findings could lead to the discovery of novel factors that activate SSCs and could be useful for the development of technologies for the prevention of male infertility.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Cell Culture Techniques
  • Cell Proliferation / drug effects
  • Cells, Cultured
  • Culture Media, Serum-Free
  • Fertility / drug effects
  • Male
  • Mice
  • Petasites / chemistry*
  • Plant Extracts / pharmacology*
  • Spermatogonia / drug effects*
  • Spermatogonia / metabolism*
  • Stem Cells / drug effects*
  • Stem Cells / metabolism*

Substances

  • Culture Media, Serum-Free
  • Plant Extracts

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the fund of Korea Food Research Institute (ER142023887), Republic of Korea. HRK YAL YHK DGL BJK KJK BGK MGO CKH SL BYR received the funding above for this work. MGO was supported by the Excellent Student Scholarship 2015 (CAU2015) from Chung-Ang University, Republic of Korea. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.