Blood-testis barrier and spermatogenesis： lessons From genetically-modified mice  

作　　者：Xiao-Hua Jiang Ihtisham Bukhari Wei Zheng Shi Yin Zheng Wang Howard J Cooke Qing-Hua Shi 

机构地区：[1]Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale, School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China [2]Medical Research Council, Human Genetics Unit and Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom [3]Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, China.

出　　处：《Asian Journal of Andrology》2014年第4期572-580,共9页亚洲男性学杂志（英文版）

基　　金：This work was supported by the National Basic Research Program （Nos. 2013CB947900, 2013CB945502 and 2014CB943101） of China （973）, by grants from National Natural Science Foundation of China （No. 31371519） and the Knowledge Innovation Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences （No. KSCX2-EW-R-07）.

摘　　要：The blood-testis barrier （BTB） is found between adjacent Sertoli cells in the testis where it creates a unique microenvironment for the development and maturation of meiotic and postmeiotic germ cells in seminiferous tubes. It is a compound proteinous structure, composed of several types of cell junctions including tight junctions （TJs）, adhesion junctions and gap junctions （GJs）. Some of the junctional proteins function as structural proteins of BTB and some have regulatory roles. The deletion or functional silencing of genes encoding these proteins may disrupt the BTB, which may cause immunological or other damages to meiotic and postmeiotic cells and ultimately lead to spermatogenic arrest and infertility. In this review, we will summarize the findings on the BTB structure and function from genetically-modified mouse models and discuss the future perspectives.The blood-testis barrier （BTB） is found between adjacent Sertoli cells in the testis where it creates a unique microenvironment for the development and maturation of meiotic and postmeiotic germ cells in seminiferous tubes. It is a compound proteinous structure, composed of several types of cell junctions including tight junctions （TJs）, adhesion junctions and gap junctions （GJs）. Some of the junctional proteins function as structural proteins of BTB and some have regulatory roles. The deletion or functional silencing of genes encoding these proteins may disrupt the BTB, which may cause immunological or other damages to meiotic and postmeiotic cells and ultimately lead to spermatogenic arrest and infertility. In this review, we will summarize the findings on the BTB structure and function from genetically-modified mouse models and discuss the future perspectives.

关 键 词：blood-testis barrier genetically-modified mouse seminiferous tubule sertoli cells SPERMATOGENESIS 

分 类 号：Q78[生物学—分子生物学] TU112.594[建筑科学—建筑理论]