Immortalization of type A spermatogonia using the SV40 large T antigen

The study of the in vitro behaviour and experimental manipulation of sperma togonia. is limited due to the absence of an effective protocol for long cu lture of germ stem cells (Nagano et al., 1998). Some years ago, Hofmann et al. (1992) described the possibility of inducing immortalization of germ ce lls by transfection of the SV40 large T antigen. Nevertheless, these author s only produced continuous type B spermatogonia. cell lines and other somat ic cells of the testis. In this communication we describe a modification of their method that can be used to generate continuous cell lines of the mos t undifferentiated germ cells of the testis, that is type A spermatogonia.