Fazeli Alireza, Affara Nabeel A, Hubank Michael, Holt William V
Academic Unit of Reproductive and Developmental Medicine, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2SF, United Kingdom.
Biol Reprod. 2004 Jul;71(1):60-5. doi: 10.1095/biolreprod.103.026815. Epub 2004 Feb 18.
In mammals, the physiological interaction between spermatozoa and oviductal epithelia involves intimate and specific contact between the two cell types. Spermatozoa may undergo stringent selection processes within the female reproductive tract before they meet and fertilize oocytes. The physiological basis of the sperm selection process is largely unknown. Here we tested the hypothesis that the oviduct has a recognition system for spermatozoa that can detect the arrival of spermatozoa in the oviduct after insemination, resulting in alterations of the oviductal transcriptome. We initially performed a global screening of the oviductal transcriptome in mice 1) at the time of estrus (mating) and 2) 6 h after mating. Transcriptional alterations in the oviduct after mating were attributed to the presence of spermatozoa in the oviduct after mating and also to changes in the hormonal environment as female mice underwent the transition from estrus to diestrus. To distinguish these possibilities, female mice were then mated with T145H mutant mice, which because of spermatogenic arrest, produce seminal plasma but no spermatozoa. Focusing on two molecules that in the first experiment were upregulated after mating, it was found that adrenomedullin and prostaglandin endoperoxidase synthase 2 transcripts were upregulated in the oviducts of mice only after mating with fertile males; those mated with T145H infertile males showed significantly less response. These results indicate that it is the arrival of spermatozoa in the oviduct that activates one or more signal transduction pathways and leads to changes in the oviductal transcriptome profiles.
在哺乳动物中，精子与输卵管上皮之间的生理相互作用涉及这两种细胞类型之间密切而特定的接触。精子在与卵母细胞相遇并使其受精之前，可能会在雌性生殖道内经历严格的筛选过程。精子筛选过程的生理基础在很大程度上尚不清楚。在此，我们测试了一个假设，即输卵管具有一个精子识别系统，该系统能够在授精后检测到精子进入输卵管，从而导致输卵管转录组发生改变。我们最初在小鼠中进行了输卵管转录组的全面筛选，1）在发情期（交配时）以及2）交配后6小时。交配后输卵管中的转录变化归因于交配后输卵管中精子的存在，也归因于雌性小鼠从发情期过渡到间情期时激素环境的变化。为了区分这些可能性，随后将雌性小鼠与T145H突变小鼠交配，由于生精停滞，T145H突变小鼠产生精浆但不产生精子。聚焦于在第一个实验中交配后上调的两种分子，发现只有在与可育雄性小鼠交配后，肾上腺髓质素和前列腺素内过氧化物合酶2的转录本才在小鼠输卵管中上调；与T145H不育雄性小鼠交配的小鼠反应明显较弱。这些结果表明，是精子进入输卵管激活了一条或多条信号转导通路，并导致输卵管转录组谱发生变化。
