Xu Qianlan, Chen Haiqi
Cecil H. and Ida Green Center for Reproductive Biology Sciences, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, USA.
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, USA.
Andrology. 2025 Jul;13(5):1181-1189. doi: 10.1111/andr.70043. Epub 2025 Apr 9.
Spermatogenesis is a complex differentiation process that is facilitated by a series of cellular and molecular events. High-throughput genomics approaches, such as single-cell RNA sequencing, have begun to enable the systematic characterization of these events. However, the loss of tissue context because of tissue disassociations in the single-cell isolation protocols limits our ability to understand the regulation of spermatogenesis and how defects in spermatogenesis lead to infertility. The recent advancement of spatial transcriptomics technologies enables the studying of the molecular signatures of various cell types and their interactions in the native tissue context. In this review, we discuss how spatial transcriptomics has been leveraged to identify spatially variable genes, characterize cellular neighborhood, delineate cell‒cell communications, and detect molecular changes under pathological conditions in the mammalian testis. We believe that spatial transcriptomics, along with other emerging spatially resolved omics assays, can be utilized to further our understanding of the underlying causes of male infertility, and to facilitate the development of new treatment approaches.
精子发生是一个复杂的分化过程，由一系列细胞和分子事件促成。高通量基因组学方法，如单细胞RNA测序，已开始能够对这些事件进行系统表征。然而，单细胞分离方案中由于组织解离导致的组织背景丧失，限制了我们理解精子发生调控以及精子发生缺陷如何导致不育的能力。空间转录组学技术的最新进展使得在天然组织背景下研究各种细胞类型的分子特征及其相互作用成为可能。在本综述中，我们讨论了如何利用空间转录组学来识别空间可变基因、表征细胞邻域、描绘细胞间通讯以及检测哺乳动物睾丸病理条件下的分子变化。我们相信，空间转录组学与其他新兴的空间分辨组学分析方法一起，可用于加深我们对男性不育潜在原因的理解，并促进新治疗方法的开发。
