Transcription profiling by array of Sertoli cells to better understand the AR signaling pathways and identify androgen regulated genes

The androgen receptor is a steroid receptor belonging to the superfamily of hormone-activated transcriptional factors, displaying distinct expression profiles in Sertoli cells during testis development, tightly correlated to the stages of spermatogenesis.The aim of the project was to better understand the AR signaling pathways, and identify androgen regulated genes in a mature Sertoli cell line (ST38c). In order to identify androgen regulated candidate genes we compared the gene expression of mature Sertoli cells (ST38c) in the absence (condition B) and in the presence of a androgenic ligand, dihydrotestosterone (condition ST). In order to understand the AMH gene repression in mature Sertoli cells, which occurs at puberty, soon after the augmentation of the AR expression, we also compared the gene profile of an immature, not expressing the androgen receptor, prepubertal Sertoli cell line (SMAT1-condition A) with the mature Sertoli cell line (ST38c- condition C), expressing the androgen receptor. The Sertoli cell line SMAT1 has been obtaiend from a 6-day old transgenic male mouse (using the targeted oncogenesis SV40). This cell line has been kindly provided to us by Dr Jean Yves Picard (UMR 782), Universite Paris Sud. (Dutertre M, et al., Mol Cell Endocrinol. 1997 Dec 31;136(1):57-65. PMID 9510068).The Sertoli cell line ST38c was obtained in the INSERM U-693 from 8-wk-old male murine testis; from a transgenic mouse carrying the construct in which the SV40 large T Antigen (TAg) was placed under the control of the human vimentin promoter. The development and description of this new cell line have not yet been published.