PTEN signaling is required for the maintenance of spermatogonial stem cells in mouse, by regulating the expressions of PLZF and UTF1

Cell & Bioscience

Zhuo Yu²  Yincheng Teng¹  Lu Wang²  Wei Cheng³  Jian Dong²  Di Zhang⁴  Hongfang Shao¹  Wei Zhou² 

[1] Centre for Reproductive Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Affiliated Sixth People Hospital, Shanghai 200233, China;Key Laboratory of Cell Differentiation and Apoptosis of Chinese Ministry of Education, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200025, China;College of Public Health, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200025, China;Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China

关键词: PI3K-Akt signaling;    Spermatogonial stem cells;    UTF1;    PLZF;    Pten knockout;   

Others  :  1223166
DOI  :  10.1186/s13578-015-0034-x

 received in 2015-04-21, accepted in 2015-07-11,  发布年份 2015

【 摘 要 】

Background

Pten plays a crucial role in the stem cell maintenance in a few organs. Pten defect also causes the premature oocytes and ovary aging. We and other groups have found that the phosphatidylinositol-3-OH kinase (PI3K)-Akt signaling regulates the proliferation and differentiation of spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs). PTEN functions as a negative regulator of the PI3K pathway. Thus, we thought that the fate of SSCs might be controlled by Pten.

Results

We report that promyelocytic leukaemia zinc finger (PLZF) and undifferentiated embryonic cell transcription factor 1 (UTF1), both of which are germ cell-specific transcriptional factors, are regulated by Pten. Conditional deletion of Pten leads to reduction in PLZF expression but induction of UTF1, which is associated with SSCs depletion and infertility in males with age.

Conclusion

Our data demonstrate that Pten is required for the long-term maintenance of SSCs and precise regulation of spermatogenesis in mouse. The finding of a Pten-regulated GFRα1 ⁺ /PLZF ⁻ /UTF1 ⁺progenitor population provides a new insight into the precise mechanisms controlling SSC fate.

【 授权许可】

   
2015 Zhou et al.

【 图 表 】

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