Fietz Daniela, Ratzenböck Clara, Hartmann Katja, Raabe Oksana, Kliesch Sabine, Weidner Wolfgang, Klug Jörg, Bergmann Martin
Institute of Veterinary Anatomy, Histology and Embryology, University of Giessen, Giessen, Germany.
Histochem Cell Biol. 2014 Oct;142(4):421-32. doi: 10.1007/s00418-014-1216-z. Epub 2014 Apr 2.
Estrogen signaling is considered to play an important role in spermatogenesis, spermiogenesis and male fertility. Estrogens can act via the two nuclear estrogen receptors ESR1 (ERα) and ESR2 (ERβ) or via the intracellular G-protein-coupled estrogen receptor 1 (GPER, formerly GPR30). Several reports on the localization and expression of all three receptors in the human testis have been published but are controversial particularly in case of ERα. Contrary to previous studies, we decided therefore to evaluate expression of all three receptors in the testis by a number of different methods and in comparison with MCF-7 cells. Using qPCR, we could show that mRNA expression of ERα is considerably lower and expression of ERβ and GPER much higher in the testis than in MCF-7 cells. RT-PCR after laser-assisted microdissection of tubular and interstitial compartments from normal and Sertoli cell only syndrome testes plus in situ hybridization and immunohistochemical analyses of the same samples demonstrated that there is very low expression of ERα in germ cells and in single interstitial cells, very high expression of ERβ in germ cells and Sertoli cells and high expression of GPER in interstitial cells and less in Sertoli cells.
雌激素信号传导被认为在精子发生、精子形成和男性生育能力中发挥重要作用。雌激素可通过两种核雌激素受体ESR1（雌激素受体α，ERα）和ESR2（雌激素受体β，ERβ）起作用，或通过细胞内G蛋白偶联雌激素受体1（GPER，原称GPR30）起作用。关于这三种受体在人类睾丸中的定位和表达已有多篇报道发表，但存在争议，尤其是在ERα的情况下。与先前的研究相反，因此我们决定通过多种不同方法评估睾丸中所有三种受体的表达，并与MCF-7细胞进行比较。使用定量聚合酶链反应（qPCR），我们可以证明，与MCF-7细胞相比，睾丸中ERα的mRNA表达显著较低，而ERβ和GPER的表达则高得多。对正常睾丸和仅支持细胞综合征睾丸的管状和间质区室进行激光辅助显微切割后进行逆转录聚合酶链反应（RT-PCR），并对相同样本进行原位杂交和免疫组织化学分析，结果表明，生殖细胞和单个间质细胞中ERα的表达非常低，生殖细胞和支持细胞中ERβ的表达非常高，间质细胞中GPER的表达高，而支持细胞中表达较少。
