Pathologic effects of Candida albicans on co-culture of sheep spermatogonia stem cells and sertoli cells

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; text-align: left;"><em><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">Candida albicans</span></em><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"> is the cause of candidiasis in sheep .<em>Candida albicans</em> can cause fertility disorder in ram with epididymitis and orchitis. Spermatogonia keep proliferating during sexual life of male animals and maintain male fertility by producing spermatozoa. Testicular tissue damage affects germ cells and consequently influences male fertility. In the present study, we isolated and purified and then co-cultured spermatogonial stem cells with sertoli cells in DMEM-F12 culture media. Spermatogonia stem cells and sertoli cells were identified by vimentin and Oct-4 immunocytochemical staining method, respectively. The cells were infected with <em>Candida albicans</em> in five groups with different doses and one group was considered as control without fungal infection. After fungal growth within 24 hours, the cells and fungus were fixed with methanol and stained with hematoxylin and eosin. The cytopathic effects of <em>Candida albicans</em> were evaluated by morphological changes and cell injury biomarkers (LDH and MDA measurement) after 24 hours. The results indicated that <em>Candida albicans</em> had cytopathic effect on spermatogonia stem cells and sertoli cells during 24 hours infection. Candida exerts its damages by its cytopathic effects and its rapid growth in culture, and these damages were dose dependent. Therefore, fungus infection of culture media should be prevented and research on infected culture media should be strictly avoided.</span>