Wang Lingling, Yan Ming, Wong Chris K C, Ge Renshan, Wu Xiaolong, Sun Fei, Cheng C Yan
The Second Affiliated Hospital and Yuying Children's Hospital, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China.
The Mary M. Wohlford Laboratory for Male Contraceptive Research, Center for Biomedical Research, Population Council, New York, NY, USA.
Histol Histopathol. 2021 Mar;36(3):249-265. doi: 10.14670/HH-18-279. Epub 2020 Nov 11.
The microtubule (MT) cytoskeleton in Sertoli cells, a crucial cellular structure in the seminiferous epithelium of adult mammalian testes that supports spermatogenesis, was studied morphologically decades ago. However, its biology, in particular the involving regulatory biomolecules and the underlying mechanism(s) in modulating MT dynamics, are only beginning to be revealed in recent years. This lack of studies in delineating the biology of MT cytoskeletal dynamics undermines other studies in the field, in particular the plausible therapeutic treatment and management of male infertility and fertility since studies have shown that the MT cytoskeleton is one of the prime targets of toxicants. Interestingly, much of the information regarding the function of actin-, MT- and intermediate filament-based cytoskeletons come from studies using toxicant models including some genetic models. During the past several years, there have been some advances in studying the biology of MT cytoskeleton in the testis, and many of these studies were based on the use of pharmaceutical/toxicant models. In this review, we summarize the results of these findings, illustrating the importance of toxicant/pharmaceutical models in unravelling the biology of MT dynamics, in particular the role of microtubule-associated proteins (MAPs), a family of regulatory proteins that modulate MT dynamics but also actin- and intermediate filament-based cytoskeletons. We also provide a timely hypothetical model which can serve as a guide to design functional experiments to study how the MT cytoskeleton is regulated during spermatogenesis through the use of toxicants and/or pharmaceutical agents.
几十年前就对支持精子发生的成年哺乳动物睾丸生精上皮中的关键细胞结构——支持细胞中的微管（MT）细胞骨架进行了形态学研究。然而，其生物学特性，特别是涉及调节MT动态的调控生物分子和潜在机制，直到近年来才开始被揭示。由于研究表明MT细胞骨架是毒物的主要靶点之一，因此在描绘MT细胞骨架动态生物学方面缺乏研究破坏了该领域的其他研究，特别是对男性不育和生育能力的合理治疗和管理。有趣的是，许多关于基于肌动蛋白、MT和中间丝的细胞骨架功能的信息来自使用毒物模型（包括一些遗传模型）的研究。在过去几年中，睾丸MT细胞骨架生物学研究取得了一些进展，其中许多研究基于药物/毒物模型的使用。在这篇综述中，我们总结了这些发现的结果，阐明了毒物/药物模型在揭示MT动态生物学方面的重要性，特别是微管相关蛋白（MAPs）的作用，这是一类调节MT动态以及基于肌动蛋白和中间丝的细胞骨架的调控蛋白家族。我们还提供了一个及时的假设模型，该模型可作为设计功能实验的指南，以研究在精子发生过程中MT细胞骨架是如何通过使用毒物和/或药物试剂进行调控的。
