Yomogida K, Ohtani H, Harigae H, Ito E, Nishimune Y, Engel J D, Yamamoto M
Department of Biochemistry, Tohoku University School of Medicine, Japan.
Development. 1994 Jul;120(7):1759-66. doi: 10.1242/dev.120.7.1759.
GATA-1 is an essential factor for the transcriptional activation of erythroid-specific genes, and is also abundantly expressed in a discrete subset of cells bordering the seminiferous epithelium in tubules of the murine testis. In examining normal and germ-line defective mutant mice, we show here that GATA-1 is expressed only in the Sertoli cell lineage in mouse testis. GATA-1 expression in Sertoli cells is induced concomitantly with the first wave of spermatogenesis, and GATA-1-positive cells are uniformly distributed among all tubules during prepubertal testis development. However, the number of GATA-1-positive cells declines thereafter and were found only in the peripheral zone of seminiferous tubules in stages VII, VIII and IX of spermatogenesis in the adult mouse testis. In contrast, virtually every Sertoli cell in mutant W/Wv, jsd/jsd or cryptorchid mice (all of which lack significant numbers of germ cells) expresses GATA-1, thus showing that the expression of this transcription factor is negatively controlled by the maturing germ cells. These observations suggest that transcription factor GATA-1 is a developmental stage- and spermatogenic cycle-specific regulator of gene expression in Sertoli cells.
GATA-1是红系特异性基因转录激活的关键因子，在小鼠睾丸曲细精管中与生精上皮相邻的离散细胞亚群中也大量表达。在研究正常和生殖系缺陷突变小鼠时，我们在此表明GATA-1仅在小鼠睾丸的支持细胞系中表达。支持细胞中GATA-1的表达与第一波精子发生同时被诱导，并且在青春期前睾丸发育期间，GATA-1阳性细胞均匀分布于所有曲细精管中。然而，此后GATA-1阳性细胞的数量减少，并且仅在成年小鼠睾丸精子发生的VII、VIII和IX期曲细精管的周边区域中发现。相比之下，在突变的W/Wv、jsd/jsd或隐睾小鼠（所有这些小鼠都缺乏大量生殖细胞）中，几乎每个支持细胞都表达GATA-1，因此表明该转录因子的表达受成熟生殖细胞的负调控。这些观察结果表明转录因子GATA-1是支持细胞中基因表达的发育阶段和生精周期特异性调节因子。
