Stem Leydig cell differentiation: gene expression during development of the adult rat population of Leydig cells.

ABSTRACT: Leydig cells are the testosterone-producing cells in the adult male. Adult Leydig cells (ALCs) develop from stem Leydig cells (SLCs) through at least two intermediate cells, progenitor Leydig cells (PLCs) and immature Leydig cells (ILCs). Microarray gene expression was used to identify the transcriptional changes that occur with the differentiation of SLCs to PLCs and, thus, with the entry of SLCs into the Leydig cell lineage; to comprehensively examine differentiation through the development of ALCs; and to relate the pattern of gene expression in SLCs to that in a well-established stem cell, bone marrow stem cells (BSCs). We show that the pattern of gene expression by SLCs was more similar to the expression by BSCs, an established stem cell outside the male reproductive tract, than to an

SUBMITTER: Stanley EL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3223250 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature