Abstract
The spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) are a key element in the biology of the germ line, critical for the individual as for the species. A precise balance between self-renewal and differentiation maintains the homeostasis of the testis. Identification of protein-coding transcripts and microRNAs (miRs) modulated in SSCs may lead to a better understanding of the molecular events critical for the maintenance of fertility, but this approach is hampered by the small size of the SSC population. We established a simple and efficient purification procedure starting from transgenic mice that express on the cell surface a neutral heterologous protein. Here we describe a gene expression profile of the adult SSC population, including both up- and down-regulated protein-coding transcripts and several differentially expressed miRs. We found 495 transcripts enriched in SSCs as compared with the bulk of differentiated germ cells and 133 decreased in abundance. Applying ontology criteria revealed candidate genes for a regulatory function in SSCs. A search in the available databases identified several miRs species, each one potentially interacting with a group of protein-coding transcripts either up- or down-regulated in the purified fraction. Among these candidates, quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assays confirmed the differential expression in the stem cells of miR-125, miR-141, and miR-181, each one either up- or down-regulated in the direction as its protein-coding targets.
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Acknowledgments
We are indebted to Yan Fantei-Caujolles and Sandra Kanani for expert handling of databases, to Christelle Thibault for the generation of microarray data, and to Frank Paput and Frédérique Millot for the maintenance of the mouse facility. This work was made possible by grants from Région PACA-Inserm and Association pour la Recherche sur le Cancer to VO and from the Ligue Nationale Contre le Cancer and Ministère de la Recherche to MR.
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Olive, V., Cuzin, F., Rassoulzadegan, M. (2009). Regulated Transcripts and Coregulated microRNAs in Male Spermatogonial Stem Cells. In: Baharvand, H. (eds) Trends in Stem Cell Biology and Technology. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-60327-905-5_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-60327-905-5_11
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