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The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism Vol. 83, No. 1 152-156
Copyright © 1998 by The Endocrine Society

Original Studies

Spontaneous Germ Cell Apoptosis in Humans: Evidence for Ethnic Differences in the Susceptibility of Germ Cells to Programmed Cell Death

Amiya P. Sinha Hikim, Christina Wang, Yanhe Lue1, Larry Johnson, X.-H Wang and Ronald S. Swerdloff

Division of Endocrinology, Harbor-University of California-Los Angeles Medical Center (A.P.S.H., C.W., Y.L., R.S.S.), Torrance, California 90509; the Department of Veterinary Anatomy and Public Health, Texas A&M University (L.J.), College Station, Texas 77843; and the Jiangsu Family Planning Research Institute (X.-H.W.), Nanjing, China

Address all correspondence and requests for reprints to: Ronald S. Swerdloff, M.D., Division of Endocrinology, Harbor-University of California-Los Angeles Medical Center, Box 446, 1000 West Carson Street, Torrance, California 90509. E-mail: Swerdloff{at}harbor2.humc.edu

Spontaneous death of certain classes of germ cells has been shown to be a constant feature of normal spermatogenesis in a variety of mammalian species, including the human. Recent studies on various animal models have demonstrated that apoptosis is the underlying mechanism of germ cell death during normal spermatogenesis. Withdrawal of gonadotropins and/or testosterone further accelerates the germ cell apoptosis. We examined the involvement of apoptosis in the spontaneous loss of germ cells in men. Testicular samples obtained at autopsy from 5 Chinese and 9 non-Hispanic Caucasian men were analyzed. To identify individual germ cells undergoing apoptosis, we used a modified terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated deoxy-UTP nick end labeling technique that detects germ cell apoptosis with high sensitivity and specificity. Testicular sections from all 14 subjects exhibited spontaneous occurrence of germ cell apoptosis involving spermatogonia, spermatocytes, and spermatids (apoptotic indexes, 1.6 ± 0.4, 2.8 ± 0.6, and 5.5 ± 1.2, respectively). The incidence of spermatogonial (2.8 ± 0.8 vs. 1.0 ± 0.2) as well as spermatid (9.3 ± 2.1 vs. 3.4 ± 0.9) apoptosis was higher in Chinese than in Caucasian men. A higher incidence of spermatocyte apoptosis was also noted for Chinese (4.4 ± 1.4) compared to Caucasian (1.9 ± 0.4) men, but the difference was not statistically significant. These results suggest that germ cell death during normal spermatogenesis in men occurs via apoptosis and provide evidence for ethnic differences in the inherent susceptibility of germ cells to programmed cell death. Our data may also help to explain the greater efficacy of testosterone-induced spermatogenic suppression to azoospermia observed in Asian compared to non-Asian men.




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