Reproductive Developmental Biology Group, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Research Triangle Park, NC, United States.
Department of Comparative Biosciences, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States.
Front Endocrinol (Lausanne). 2022 Jun 30;13:910964. doi: 10.3389/fendo.2022.910964. eCollection 2022.
In the 1940s, Alfred Jost demonstrated the necessity of testicular secretions, particularly androgens, for male internal and external genitalia differentiation. Since then, our knowledge of androgen impacts on differentiation of the male internal (Wolffian duct) and external genitalia (penis) has been drastically expanded upon. Between these two morphologically and functionally distinct organs, divergent signals facilitate the establishment of tissue-specific identities. Conversely, conserved actions of androgen signaling are present in both tissues and are largely responsible for the growth and expansion of the organs. In this review we synthesize the existing knowledge of the cell type-specific, organ specific, and conserved signaling mechanisms of androgens. Mechanistic studies on androgen signaling in the Wolffian duct and male external genitalia have largely been conducted in mouse model organisms. Therefore, the majority of the review is focused on mouse model studies.
20 世纪 40 年代，Alfred Jost 证明了睾丸分泌物（特别是雄激素）对于男性内外生殖器分化的必要性。从那时起，我们对雄激素影响男性内生殖器（沃尔夫管）和外生殖器（阴茎）分化的认识有了很大的扩展。在这两个形态和功能上截然不同的器官之间，不同的信号促进了组织特异性的建立。相反，雄激素信号的保守作用存在于这两种组织中，并且在很大程度上负责器官的生长和扩张。在这篇综述中，我们综合了雄激素的细胞类型特异性、器官特异性和保守信号机制的现有知识。在沃尔夫管和男性外生殖器中的雄激素信号的机制研究主要在小鼠模型生物中进行。因此，本综述的大部分内容集中在小鼠模型研究上。
