Journal
PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Volume 365, Issue 1546, Pages 1607-1620Publisher
ROYAL SOC
DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2009.0114
Keywords
connexin; spermatogenesis; cell proliferation; fertility; cancer
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Funding
- Institut National de la Sante et de la Recherche Medicale (INSERM)
- French Ministry of Research and Technology, ANR [05-PCOD-006-02]
- ARC
- Novexel
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Spermatogenesis is a highly regulated process of germ cell proliferation and differentiation, starting from spermatogonia to spermatocytes and giving rise to spermatids, the future spermatozoa. In addition to endocrine regulation, testicular cell-cell interactions are essential for spermatogenesis. This precise control is mediated through paracrine/autocrine pathways, direct intercellular contacts and through intercellular communication channels, consisting of gap junctions and their constitutive proteins, the connexins. Gap junctions are localized between adjacent Leydig cells, between Sertoli cells and between Sertoli cells and specific germ cells. This review focuses on the distribution of connexins within the seminiferous epithelium, their participation in gap junction channel formation, the control of their expression and the physiological relevance of these junctions in both the Sertoli-Sertoli cell functional synchronization and the Sertoli-germ cell dialogue. In this review, we also discuss the potential implication of disrupted connexin in testis cancer, since impaired expression of connexin has been described as a typical feature of tumoral proliferation.
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