Study On The Testicular Germ Cells Apoptosis And Related Genes Regulation In Mice

More and more evidences from both morphological and biochemical studies have shown that the apoptosis is a probable mechanism of germ cell degeneration in normal spermatogenesis. Hormones like GnRH, LH and FSH and temperature are important factors to regulate germ cell apoptosis. Some genes in the germ cells are activated by these extracellular regulative factors before inducing cell suicide. Recently, although the study on apoptosis became research hot point, the gene level studies on the germ cell apoptosis are seldom seen. Our studies will seek whether both bcl-2 and bax genes participate in modulat the germ cell apoptosis, whether hsp70 gene plays roles in germ cell apoptosis and how they regulate germ cell apoptosis.At first, by pushing the adult mouse right testis into the abdominal cavity and suturing the inguinal canal, the inducing germ cell apoptosis model was created by cryptorchidism operation. It was observed that the mean weight of crptorchid testis decreased significantly on 6-15d after operation (p<0.01). The considerable disorganization of the spermatogenic epithelium was observed on 6-15d after operation. A large amount of germ cells were lost. The number of spermatozoa reduced considerably and even spermatozoa disappeared. Numbers of multinucleated giant cells (MGC) were seen in the seminiferous tubules. The vacuoles were seen within the spermatogenic epithelium. The nuclear chromatin of some germ cells showed condensation and margination, the changes were typical features of apoptotic cell. Sertoli cells and Leydig cells kept unchanged during the experimental period. TUNEL staining results showed that positive staining was observed occasionally in...