WSU’s longest-running NIH grant funded again

Washington State University researchers have been awarded a $2.1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to continue a nearly five-decade-long research effort aimed at gaining a better understanding of sperm production and regulation in mammals.

The five-year grant will take the project, already the longest continuously funded NIH research at WSU, through its 49th year. The grant brings the project total to more than $30 million since its inception in 1976 and could lead to new approaches to male contraception.

"There are not many grants that get into their 40s," said Michael Griswold, WSU Regents professor emeritus and former director of the WSU College of Veterinary Medicine's School of Molecular Biosciences. "I am very proud of all the students and postdocs that made the lab so successful over this very long period of time, and I am proud of the contributions we made and am anxious to do more."

The research, led by Griswold, is currenting examining the role of retinoic acid, a key compound for initiating the production of germ cells in the testes that are known to evolve into sperm and the Sertoli cells known to aid the germ cells in evolution.

The work builds on decades of research at WSU from Griswold, countless undergraduates, more than 30 graduate students and 27 postdoctoral fellows.

Since 1976, Griswold has studied the function of Sertoli cells. In 1987, when examining vitamin-A-deficient rats, he and other investigators discovered that vitamin A altered Sertoli cell gene expression, and that retinoic acid, created by Sertoli cells' interaction with vitamin A, triggered the collection and evolution of Sertoli cells and germ cells in the testes - a key step for sperm production.

Now Griswold is looking at different ways to block retinoic acid and cease germ cell maturation before it begins, and, in turn, stop the development of sperm altogether.

"We know that retinoic acid controls the cycle in the testes that produce the Sertoli cells that nurse the production of future sperm," Griswold said. "We don't know what controls that, but that's what we're trying to find out right now."

The research has provided an understanding of the crucial role vitamin A plays in germ cell entry and builds on the literature for other scientists in the field.

"It's a very difficult, complex group of cells that interact with each other," Griswold said. "What we know about them is still very rudimentary and yet it's crucial to human existence."