Stage-dependent gene expression change in Sertoli cells regulated by retinoic acid signaling

To identifiy stage-dependent genes in Sertoli cells, we performed expression microarray analysis of the adult whole testes, cultured primary Sertoli cells, Sertoli cells directly isolated from wild-type and Nanos3 (germ-less) testes,seminiferous tubules at stages I-III, IV-VI, VII-VIII and IX-XII. Next to examine the relationship between stage-dependent gene expression change and retinoic acid signaling, we performed expression microarray analysis of the cultured primary Sertoli cells treated with retinoic acid and stage-specific seminiferous tubules injected with lentivirus containing Venus or dominat negative form of RARa, a dominant receptor for retinoic acid in Sertoli cells. Biological duplicates were examined at each sample