Presence of anti-Müllerian hormone correlates with absence of laminin α5 chain in differentiating rat testis and ovary

Abstract

 The distribution of anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) and laminin (Ln) α5 chain in differentiating rat testis and ovary were studied by immunohistochemistry. In the incipient embryonic male gonad a weak reaction for Ln α5 chain, but not for AMH, was detected. With further prenatal development, Ln α5 chain rapidly disappeared from the basement membrane (BM) of the incipient testicular cords in parallel with the appearance of AMH in the Sertoli cells. After birth, Ln α5 chain reappeared in the BMs of the cords with the decline and disappearance of AMH from the respective Sertoli cells. In the corresponding stages of the ovary, Ln α5 chain was present in the BM of the prenatal gonadal cords and in postnatal primordial follicles. The cells of those epithelia were negative for AMH. With the growth of the follicles, Ln α5 chain disappeared from the BM when AMH appeared in the epithelial follicular cells. The present results show that male and female gonadal epithelia negative for Ln α5 chain were positive for AMH, and that epithelia positive for Ln α5 chain were negative for AMH. Thus, epithelial Ln α5 chain and AMH as a product of the same cell seemed to exclude each other. The results require an explanation why Ln α5 chain has to be excluded from the BM of the epithelia during the secretion of AMH chain through the basal cell membrane to the surrounding tissues where it executes its important biological functions. These observations suggest a hypothesis that the production of both components is regulated by the same gene and factor system.