Fig. 1

Isolation and characterization of putative porcine mGSCs from the testes. a A schematic illustrates the isolation method of putative porcine mGSCs from the testes of 5-day-old piglets. b The attached fibroblasts were removed from the cell suspension by differential plating culture, and an image shows the purified mGSCs. c An image shows the alkaline phosphatase (AP) staining of the isolated putative mGSCs. d The purity of putative isolated porcine mGSCs was demonstrated by flow cytometry with staining and analyses of GFRA1, OCT4, PLZF, and c-KIT. e Immunofluorescence staining shows expression of the stem cell markers GFRA1, OCT4, and PLZF in the putative porcine mGSCs; nuclei were stained with Hoechst 33,342 (blue) and c-KIT was used as negative control. f Immunohistochemistry staining shows expression of GFRA1, OCT4, PLZF, and c-KIT in the testis of a 5-day-old piglet. g Immunofluorescence staining shows expression of the crucial germ cell-associated proteins VASA, PGP9.5, and CD29 and the pluripotency-associated factors NANOG, SSEA1, SSEA4, TRA-1-60, and TRA-1-81 in putative porcine mGSCs