Poster Presentation The Annual Scientific Meeting of the Endocrine Society of Australia and the Society for Reproductive Biology 2014

Analysis of gene expression profile of gonocytes and spermatogonial stem cells in mice (#307)

Siu Kuen YUE 1 , Amanda Vannitamby 1 , Bridget R Southwell 1 2 , John M Hutson 1 2 3 , Ruili Li 1 2
  1. FD Stephens Surgical Research Group, Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, 50 Flemington Rd, Parkville, VIC 3052, Australia
  2. Department of Paediatrics, , University of Melbourne, 50 Flemington Rd, Parkville, VIC 3052, Australia
  3. Urology Department, The Royal Children’s Hospital, 50 Flemington Rd, Parkville, VIC 3052, Australia

Introduction & Objective

Undescended Testis (UDT) in boys can lead to an increased risk of infertility and malignancy later in life. It has been proposed that androgen is important to germ cell (GC) transformation from gonocytes to spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) during early postnatal development. The aim of this study was to analyse gene expression in the postnatal testes of mouse VASA homologue (MVH), anti-Műllerian hormone (AMH), stem cell factor (c-Kit), matrix metalloproteinase type1 (MT1-MMP) and octamer-binding protein 4 (Oct-4) in wildtype (WT) and androgen receptor knockout (ARKO) mice.  

Materials & Methods

Testes from WT and ARKO littermate mice were collected at postnatal (P) days 0 (P0, birth), P4 and P8 for RNA extraction and reverse transcription. Gene expression levels of MVH, AMH, c-Kit, MT1-MMP and Oct-4 were measured by real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) using SYBR green assay in Applied Biosystem 7500 Fast. RPL32 was used as a housekeeping gene. Data were analysed and compared between WT and ARKO.

Result

There was no statistical difference in gene expression for c-Kit, MT1-MMP, Oct4, AMH and MVH between WT and ARKO mouse testes at each developmental stage at birth, postnatal day 4 and day 8.

Conclusion

Our study shows that androgen does not influence the gene expression of MVH, AMH, MT1-MMP, Oct4 and c-Kit in mouse testes during early postnatal development.