Development and Reproduction (한국발생생물학회지:발생과생식)

The Korean Society of Developmental Biology (한국발생생물학회)
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Is Autophagy a Prerequisite for Steroidogenesis in Leydig Cells?

  • Ji-Eun Park (Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, College of Medicine, Dong-A University) ;
  • Yoon-Jae Kim (Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, College of Medicine, Dong-A University) ;
  • Jong-Min Kim (Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, College of Medicine, Dong-A University)
  • Received : 2023.07.03
  • Accepted : 2023.09.16
  • Published : 2023.09.30
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Abstract

We investigated the involvement of autophagy with steroidogenesis in testicular Leydig cells. Human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG)-stimulated T production in Leydig cells was not remarkably altered in the presence of an autophagy inhibitor 3-methyladenine (3-MA). Although pretreatment with 3-MA demonstrated a tendency to decrease hCG-induced T production, the differences were significant only at a higher time point of 24 h following hCG. Microtubule associated protein light chain 3 (LC3)-II was detectable in the control cells in all the experiments. The hCG-induced increase in steroidogenic acute regulatory protein (StAR) and cytochrome P450 side chain cleave (P450scc) protein levels were not significantly altered by 3-MA. Leydig cells isolated from immature rat testes 12 h following hCG treatment showed relatively increased levels of LC3-II protein compared to the control group. Furthermore, LC3-II levels shown in these cells reached almost the identical to those from normal adult testes. However, LC3-II protein levels were almost comparable or even slightly lower than the controls at 48 h following hCG. Expression of StAR and P450scc was upregulated at both 12 and 48 h after hCG. We also used MA-10 cells, the mouse Leydig cell line, in this experiment. When dibutyryl cyclic-AMP was treated with MA-10 cells, P4 levels were significantly increased in the cell culture medium. However, P4 levels tended to decrease in the presence of 3-MA, but the difference was not statistically significant. This was consistent with the results of the rat Leydig cell experiments. Together, we believe that although autophagy participates in steroidogenesis and enhances steroidogenic efficacy of Leydig cells, it may not be a decisive cellular process for steroidogenesis, specifically in the mature Leydig cells.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

This research was supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education (NRF-2020R1I1A3068980).

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