Morphological change induced by cadmium in primary rat gonocyte cell - sertoli co-cultures in vitro.

[Objective] To investigate the acute effects of cadmium on primary rat gonocyte cell/sertoli co-cultures.[Methods] Gonocytes and sertoli cells were separated from 3-day SD rat.Cadmium(0,2.5,5,10,20 μmol/L)were added to coculture system 12 h after gonocyte and sertoli cell had co-cultured for 24 h.Alkaline phosphatase and oilred O were used to identify the gonocyte and sertoli cells.TUNEL in situ detection was used for detecting apoptosis.[Results] Exposure of 2.5 μmol/L cadmium did not induce morphologic change of gonocytes and sertoli cells.When exposure dose greater than 5 μmol/L,sertoli cells showed morphological change identified by oilred O in a dose-dependent manner.TUNEL in situ detection suggested that cadmium increased apoptosis in both gonocytes and sertoli cells.[Conclusion] Exposure of cadmium for 12 h induced morphological change of sertoli cells and apoptosis of both gonocyte and sertoli cell.