Department of Comparative Anatomy, Institute of Zoology and Biomedical Research, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland.
Institute of Systematics and Evolution of Animals, Polish Academy of Sciences, Krakow, Poland.
Mech Dev. 2018 Feb;149:9-19. doi: 10.1016/j.mod.2017.11.001. Epub 2017 Nov 9.
Extracellular matrix (ECM) plays an important scaffolding role in the establishment of organs structure during development. A great number of ECM components and enzymes (proteinases) regulating formation/degradation of ECM during organ remodeling have been identified. In order to study the role of ECM in the mouse gonad development, especially during sexual differentiation of the gonads when the structure of the testis and ovary becomes established, we performed a global analysis of transcriptome in three main cell types of developing gonad (supporting, interstitial/stromal and germ cells) using transgenic mice, cell sorting and microarray. The genes coding for ECM components were mostly expressed in two gonadal cell lines: supporting and interstitial/stromal cells. These two cell lines differed in the expression pattern of ECM components, which suggests that ECM components might be crucial for differentiation of gonad compartments (for example testis cords vs. interstitium in XY gonads). Collagens and proteoglycans coding genes were mainly expressed in the interstitium/stromal cells, while non-collagen glycoproteins and matricellular coding genes were expressed in both cell lines. We also analyzed the expression of genes encoding ECM enzymes that are secreted to the ECM where they remodel the scaffolding of developing organs. We found that the ECM enzyme genes were also mostly expressed in supporting and interstitial/stromal cells. In contrast to the somatic cells, the germ cells expressed only limited number of ECM components and enzymes. This suggests that the germ line cells do not participate, or play only a minor role, in the sculpting of the gonad structure via ECM synthesis and remodeling. Importantly, the supporting cells showed the sex-specific pattern of expression of ECM components. However, the pattern of expression of most ECM enzymes in the somatic and germ cells is independent on the sex of the gonad. Further studies are required to elucidate the exact roles of identified genes in sexual differentiation of the gonads.
细胞外基质 (ECM) 在器官发育过程中结构的建立中起着重要的支架作用。已经鉴定出许多 ECM 成分和调节 ECM 形成/降解的酶（蛋白水解酶）。为了研究 ECM 在小鼠性腺发育中的作用，特别是在睾丸和卵巢结构建立时性腺的性分化过程中，我们使用转基因小鼠、细胞分选和微阵列对发育中的性腺的三种主要细胞类型（支持细胞、间质/基质细胞和生殖细胞）进行了转录组的全局分析。编码 ECM 成分的基因主要在两种性腺细胞系中表达：支持细胞和间质/基质细胞。这两种细胞系的 ECM 成分表达模式不同，这表明 ECM 成分可能对性腺隔室（例如 XY 性腺中的睾丸索与间质）的分化至关重要。编码胶原和蛋白聚糖的基因主要在间质/基质细胞中表达，而非胶原糖蛋白和基质细胞编码基因在两种细胞系中均有表达。我们还分析了表达 ECM 酶的基因，这些基因被分泌到 ECM 中，在那里重塑发育器官的支架。我们发现 ECM 酶基因也主要在支持细胞和间质/基质细胞中表达。与体细胞不同，生殖细胞仅表达有限数量的 ECM 成分和酶。这表明生殖细胞不参与或仅发挥次要作用，通过 ECM 合成和重塑来塑造性腺结构。重要的是，支持细胞表现出 ECM 成分表达的性别特异性模式。然而，大多数 ECM 酶在体细胞和生殖细胞中的表达模式与性腺的性别无关。需要进一步的研究来阐明鉴定基因在性腺性分化中的确切作用。
