INSERM U 895, Team 5 Physiopathology of Germ Cell Control: Genomic and Non-genomic Mechanisms, Bâtiment Universitaire ARCHIMED, C3M, 151 route Saint-Antoine de Ginestière, BP 2 3194, 06204 Nice Cedex 3, France.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2010 May 27;365(1546):1607-20. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2009.0114.
Spermatogenesis is a highly regulated process of germ cell proliferation and differentiation, starting from spermatogonia to spermatocytes and giving rise to spermatids, the future spermatozoa. In addition to endocrine regulation, testicular cell-cell interactions are essential for spermatogenesis. This precise control is mediated through paracrine/autocrine pathways, direct intercellular contacts and through intercellular communication channels, consisting of gap junctions and their constitutive proteins, the connexins. Gap junctions are localized between adjacent Leydig cells, between Sertoli cells and between Sertoli cells and specific germ cells. This review focuses on the distribution of connexins within the seminiferous epithelium, their participation in gap junction channel formation, the control of their expression and the physiological relevance of these junctions in both the Sertoli-Sertoli cell functional synchronization and the Sertoli-germ cell dialogue. In this review, we also discuss the potential implication of disrupted connexin in testis cancer, since impaired expression of connexin has been described as a typical feature of tumoral proliferation.
精子发生是一个高度调控的生殖细胞增殖和分化过程，从精原细胞到精母细胞，再到精子细胞，最终形成精子。除了内分泌调节，睾丸细胞间的相互作用对于精子发生至关重要。这种精确的控制是通过旁分泌/自分泌途径、直接细胞间接触以及通过细胞间通讯通道（包括间隙连接及其组成蛋白连接蛋白）介导的。间隙连接位于相邻的间质细胞之间、支持细胞之间以及支持细胞和特定的生殖细胞之间。这篇综述重点介绍了连接蛋白在生精上皮中的分布、它们在间隙连接通道形成中的参与、它们的表达调控以及这些连接在支持细胞-支持细胞功能同步和支持细胞-生殖细胞对话中的生理相关性。在这篇综述中，我们还讨论了连接蛋白中断在睾丸癌中的潜在意义，因为连接蛋白的表达受损已被描述为肿瘤增殖的典型特征。
