Marinos E, Kulukussa M, Zotos A, Kittas C
Department of Histology and Embryology, Medical School, University of Athens, Greece.
Differentiation. 1995 Sep;59(2):87-94. doi: 10.1046/j.1432-0436.1995.5920087.x.
The vitamin A derivative retinoic acid (RA) has been previously shown to have teratogenic effects and an ability to modulate cell differentiation in vivo and in vitro. In this study bilateral testicular primordia with the mesonephroi attached were isolated from rat fetuses at 14.5 days of gestation. The gonads were cultured on agar-coated grids in a synthetic medium. RA was added to male rat embryonic gonad cultures at a final concentration of 10(-6) M for 3 h. Two types of controls were prepared: (1) by omitting RA from the culture medium (alcohol controls) and (2) by using plain medium (untreated controls). When applied to gonad cultures RA was found to affect basement membrane development and disturb the general appearance of the tissue. All controls exhibited normal morphology. In order to evaluate the morphological changes observed due to the RA treatment, constituents of the basement membrane, laminin and collagen IV, were localized immunohistochemically at the light microscope level. Basement membrane was also studied at the electron microscope level in control and RA-treated cultures. We propose that one of the effects RA has on rat testicular morphogenesis is the irreversible suppression of seminiferous cord basement membrane formation and the disruption of normal testicular morphogenesis.
维生素A衍生物视黄酸（RA）先前已被证明具有致畸作用，并能够在体内和体外调节细胞分化。在本研究中，将附着有中肾的双侧睾丸原基从妊娠14.5天的大鼠胎儿中分离出来。性腺在合成培养基中的琼脂包被网格上培养。将RA以终浓度10(-6) M添加到雄性大鼠胚胎性腺培养物中3小时。制备了两种类型的对照：（1）通过从培养基中省略RA（乙醇对照）和（2）通过使用普通培养基（未处理对照）。当应用于性腺培养物时，发现RA会影响基底膜发育并扰乱组织的整体外观。所有对照均表现出正常形态。为了评估由于RA处理而观察到的形态变化，在光学显微镜水平通过免疫组织化学方法对基底膜成分层粘连蛋白和IV型胶原进行定位。还在电子显微镜水平对对照和RA处理的培养物中的基底膜进行了研究。我们提出，RA对大鼠睾丸形态发生的影响之一是不可逆地抑制生精索基底膜形成并破坏正常的睾丸形态发生。
