Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology BioMed Central Research Open Access Lifelong testicular differentiation in Pleurodeles waltl (Amphibia, Caudata) Stéphane Flament*, Hélène Dumond, Dominique Chardard and Amand Chesnel Address: EA 3442 Aspects cellulaires et moléculaires de la reproduction et du développement, Nancy-Université, Faculté des Sciences, Boulevard des Aiguillettes, BP 70239, 54506 Vandoeuvre-les-Nancy, France Email: Stéphane Flament* -
[email protected]; Hélène Dumond -
[email protected]; Dominique Chardard -
[email protected]; Amand Chesnel -
[email protected] * Corresponding author Published: 5 March 2009 Received: 10 December 2008 Accepted: 5 March 2009 Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology 2009, 7:21 doi:10.1186/1477-7827-7-21 This article is available from: http://www.rbej.com/content/7/1/21 © 2009 Flament et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Abstract Background: In numerous Caudata, the testis is known to differentiate new lobes at adulthood, leading to a multiple testis. The Iberian ribbed newt Pleurodeles waltl has been studied extensively as a model for sex determination and differentiation. However, the evolution of its testis after metamorphosis is poorly documented. Methods: Testes were obtained from Pleurodeles waltl of different ages reared in our laboratory. Testis evolution was studied by several approaches: morphology, histology, immunohistochemistry and RT-PCR. Surgery was also employed to study testis regeneration.