Center for Genomic and Personalized Medicine, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi, China.
Guangxi Collaborative Innovation Center for Genomic and Personalized Medicine, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi, China.
Front Endocrinol (Lausanne). 2022 Nov 17;13:1036517. doi: 10.3389/fendo.2022.1036517. eCollection 2022.
Human fetal adrenal glands produce substantial amounts of dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), which is one of the most important precursors of sex hormones. However, the underlying biological mechanism remains largely unknown. Herein, we sequenced human fetal adrenal glands and gonads from 7 to 14 gestational weeks (GW) 10× Genomics single-cell transcriptome techniques, reconstructed their location information by spatial transcriptomics. Relative to gonads, adrenal glands begin to synthesize steroids early. The coordination among steroidogenic cells and multiple non-steroidogenic cells promotes adrenal cortex construction and steroid synthesis. Notably, during the window of sexual differentiation (8-12 GW), key enzyme gene expression shifts to accelerate DHEA synthesis in males and cortisol synthesis in females. Our research highlights the robustness of the action of fetal adrenal glands on gonads to modify the process of sexual differentiation.
人类胎儿肾上腺会产生大量的脱氢表雄酮（DHEA），它是最重要的性激素前体之一。然而，其潜在的生物学机制在很大程度上仍是未知的。在此，我们通过 10× Genomics 单细胞转录组技术对 7 至 14 孕周的胎儿肾上腺和性腺进行了测序，并通过空间转录组学重建了它们的位置信息。与性腺相比，肾上腺更早开始合成类固醇。类固醇生成细胞和多种非类固醇生成细胞之间的协调促进了肾上腺皮质的构建和类固醇的合成。值得注意的是，在性别分化窗口（8-12GW）期间，关键酶基因的表达发生转变，以加速男性 DHEA 和女性皮质醇的合成。我们的研究强调了胎儿肾上腺对性腺的作用的稳健性，以改变性别分化的过程。
