Li Yaqiong, Zhang Lianjun, Hu Yuqiong, Chen Min, Han Feng, Qin Yan, Chen Min, Cui Xiuhong, Duo Shuguang, Tang Fuchou, Gao Fei
From the State Key Laboratory of Stem Cell and Reproductive Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101.
the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 101408, and.
J Biol Chem. 2017 Oct 27;292(43):17577-17586. doi: 10.1074/jbc.M117.811349. Epub 2017 Sep 12.
Sertoli and granulosa cells are two major types of somatic cells in male and female gonads, respectively. Previous studies have shown that Sertoli and granulosa cells are derived from common progenitor cells and that differentiation of these two cell types is regulated by sex differentiation genes. The signaling pathway including the adhesion and transcription factor (cadherin-associated protein, β1, also known as β-catenin) regulates differentiation of granulosa cells in the absence of the transcription factor Sry, and overactivation of β-catenin in the presence of Sry leads to granulosa prior to sex determination. Surprisingly, our previous study found that β-catenin overactivation in Sertoli cells after sex determination can also cause disruption of the testicular cord and aberrant testis development. However, the underlying molecular mechanism was unclear. In this study, we found that constitutive activation of in Sertoli cells led to ectopic expression of the granulosa cell-specific marker FOXL2 in testes. Co-staining experiments revealed that FOXL2-positive cells were derived from Sertoli cells, and Sertoli cells were transformed into granulosa-like cells after overactivation. Further studies demonstrated that CTNNB1 induced expression by directly binding to transcription factor Tcf/Lef-binding sites in the promoter region. We also found that direct overexpression of decreased the expression of Sertoli cell-specific genes in primary Sertoli cells. Taken together, these results demonstrate that repression of β-catenin (CTNNB1) signaling is required for lineage maintenance of Sertoli cells. Our study provides a new mechanism for Sertoli cell lineage maintenance during gonad development.
支持细胞和颗粒细胞分别是雄性和雌性性腺中的两种主要类型的体细胞。先前的研究表明,支持细胞和颗粒细胞源自共同的祖细胞,并且这两种细胞类型的分化受性别分化基因调控。包括黏附分子和转录因子(钙黏蛋白相关蛋白β1,也称为β-连环蛋白)的信号通路在缺乏转录因子Sry的情况下调节颗粒细胞的分化,而在存在Sry的情况下β-连环蛋白的过度激活会在性别决定之前导致颗粒细胞的出现。令人惊讶的是,我们先前的研究发现,性别决定后支持细胞中β-连环蛋白的过度激活也会导致睾丸索的破坏和睾丸发育异常。然而,其潜在的分子机制尚不清楚。在本研究中,我们发现支持细胞中β-连环蛋白的组成性激活导致睾丸中颗粒细胞特异性标志物FOXL2的异位表达。共染色实验表明,FOXL2阳性细胞源自支持细胞,并且在β-连环蛋白过度激活后支持细胞转变为颗粒样细胞。进一步的研究表明,CTNNB1通过直接结合FOXL2启动子区域中的转录因子Tcf/Lef结合位点来诱导FOXL2表达。我们还发现,FOXL2的直接过表达降低了原代支持细胞中支持细胞特异性基因的表达。综上所述,这些结果表明,β-连环蛋白(CTNNB1)信号的抑制是支持细胞谱系维持所必需的。我们的研究为性腺发育过程中支持细胞谱系的维持提供了一种新机制。