TY - JOUR
T1 - The glucocorticoid receptor NR3C1 in testicular peritubular cells is developmentally regulated and linked to the smooth muscle-like cellular phenotype
AU - Welter, Harald
AU - Herrmann, Carola
AU - Dellweg, Nils
AU - Missel, Annika
AU - Thanisch, Christiane
AU - Urbanski, Henryk F.
AU - Köhn, Frank Michael
AU - Schwarzer, J. Ullrich
AU - Müller-Taubenberger, Annette
AU - Mayerhofer, Artur
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2020/4
Y1 - 2020/4
N2 - Whether glucocorticoids (GC) can directly affect human testicular functions is not well understood. A predominant site of GC receptor (GR; NR3C1) expression in the adult testis are peritubular smooth muscle-like cells, which express smooth muscle actin (ACTA2), contract and thereby are involved in sperm transport. In contrast to the adult, neither GR nor ACTA2, or elastin (ELN) were detected in the peritubular compartment before puberty in non-human primate testes. In isolated human testicular peritubular cells (HTPCs), activation of GR by dexamethasone (Dex) caused the translocation of GR to the nucleus and stimulated expression of ACTA2 and ELN, without affecting the expression of collagens. Cytoskeletal ACTA2-rearrangements were observed and were associated with an increased ability to contract. Our results indicate post-pubertal testicular roles of GC in the maintenance of the contractile, smooth muscle-like phenotype of peritubular cells.
AB - Whether glucocorticoids (GC) can directly affect human testicular functions is not well understood. A predominant site of GC receptor (GR; NR3C1) expression in the adult testis are peritubular smooth muscle-like cells, which express smooth muscle actin (ACTA2), contract and thereby are involved in sperm transport. In contrast to the adult, neither GR nor ACTA2, or elastin (ELN) were detected in the peritubular compartment before puberty in non-human primate testes. In isolated human testicular peritubular cells (HTPCs), activation of GR by dexamethasone (Dex) caused the translocation of GR to the nucleus and stimulated expression of ACTA2 and ELN, without affecting the expression of collagens. Cytoskeletal ACTA2-rearrangements were observed and were associated with an increased ability to contract. Our results indicate post-pubertal testicular roles of GC in the maintenance of the contractile, smooth muscle-like phenotype of peritubular cells.
KW - Cytoskeleton
KW - Dexamethasone
KW - Elastin
KW - Glucocorticoid
KW - Human male fertility
KW - Human testis
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U2 - 10.3390/jcm9040961
DO - 10.3390/jcm9040961
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85100321332
SN - 2077-0383
VL - 9
JO - Journal of Clinical Medicine
JF - Journal of Clinical Medicine
IS - 4
M1 - 961
ER -