Researchers find new solution to male menopause
Print Edition
RESEARCHERS at Jinan University in southeast China’s Guangzhou have developed a new approach to treating male hypogonadism, or the male menopause, by converting adult skin cells to produce testosterone.
The condition, which affects almost a third of older men, occurs when the body does not produce enough of the testosterone hormone, primarily due to the dysfunction of testosterone-producing Leydig cells in the testes.
Testosterone replacement therapy can alleviate some symptoms, such as mood changes, sexual dysfunction and muscle weakening, but it may also increase the risk of prostate and cardiovascular complications, including the formation of blood clots, according to a study published in the US journal Stem Cell Reports.
Scientists turned to an alternative type of treatment, which involved production of Leydig cells by differentiating stem cells of different sources, such as embryonic stem cells, but the stem cell-based method has ethical concerns and the risk of tumor occurrence.
In the new study, Jinan University’s Huang Yadong and Su Zhijian reasoned that the direct conversion of adult skin cells into Leydig cells would be a safer approach.
To test this idea, they screened 11 factors that could affect the ability of Leydig cells to produce testosterone.
By genetically manipulating three of these factors, they were able to directly reprogram mouse skin cells into functional Leydig-like cells, which showed normal gene activity and were capable of producing testosterone.
When transplanted into the testes of rats or mice with the condition, the cells survived and restored normal testosterone levels. “Our study is the first to report a method for generating Leydig cells by means of direct cell reprogramming,” Huang said.
“This alternative source of Leydig cells will be of great significance for basic research and provides the attractive prospect of clinical application in the field of regenerative medicine.”
The two researchers suggested that future studies should aim to improve the efficiency of the approach to generate a pure population of cells that closely mimic adult Leydig cells.
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