Fang Xin, Li Qinglei
Department of Veterinary Integrative Biosciences, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA.
Oncol Lett. 2020 Dec;20(6):293. doi: 10.3892/ol.2020.12156. Epub 2020 Sep 25.
Testicular granulosa cell tumors (TGCTs) are rare tumors of sex cord-stromal origin. TGCTs are mostly benign and can be classified into the adult type and the juvenile type. Due to the rarity of clinical cases and limited research efforts, the mechanism underpinning the development of TGCTs remains poorly understood. A landmark study has identified a forkhead box L2 mutation (C134W) in nearly all adult ovarian GCTs, but its implications in TGCTs are unclear. The present study focuses on reviewing the major signaling pathways (e.g., the transforming growth factor β signaling pathway) critical for the development of TGCTs, as revealed by genetically modified mouse models, with a goal of providing new insights into the pathogenesis of TGCTs and offering directions for future studies in this area. We posit that a comparative approach between testicular and ovarian GCTs is valuable, as granulosa cells and Sertoli cells arise from the same progenitor cells during gonadal development. Developing pre-clinical mouse models that recapitulate TGCTs will help answer the remaining questions around this type of rare tumor.
睾丸颗粒细胞瘤（TGCTs）是一种罕见的性索间质起源肿瘤。TGCTs大多为良性，可分为成人型和青少年型。由于临床病例罕见且研究力度有限，TGCTs发生发展的机制仍知之甚少。一项具有里程碑意义的研究在几乎所有成人卵巢颗粒细胞瘤中发现了叉头框L2突变（C134W），但其在TGCTs中的意义尚不清楚。本研究重点回顾了转基因小鼠模型揭示的对TGCTs发生发展至关重要的主要信号通路（如转化生长因子β信号通路），目的是为TGCTs的发病机制提供新见解，并为该领域的未来研究指明方向。我们认为，睾丸和卵巢颗粒细胞瘤之间的比较方法很有价值，因为在性腺发育过程中，颗粒细胞和支持细胞来源于相同的祖细胞。开发能够重现TGCTs的临床前小鼠模型将有助于解答围绕这类罕见肿瘤的剩余问题。
