Molecular Human Reproduction, Vol. 9, No. 12, pp. 757-763, 2003
© European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology 2003; all rights reserved
Misregulation of histone acetylation in Sertoli cell-only syndrome and testicular cancer
1Unité INSERM U309, Université Joseph Fourier, Institut Albert Bonniot, Faculté de Médecine de Grenoble, Domaine de la Merci, 38706 La Tronche Cedex, 2Laboratoire de Biologie de la Reproduction, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Grenoble, BP 217, 38 043 Grenoble Cedex 09, 3Laboratoire de Biologie de la Reproduction, INSERM GDPM, Université Paris V, CHU Cochin, 24 rue du Faubourg Saint-Jacques, 75014 Paris and 4Service dAnatomie Pathologique, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Grenoble, BP 217 38043 Grenoble Cedex 09, France 5Current address: Département de Biologie, Université Libanaise, Faculté des Sciences II-Fanar, Lebanon
6 To whom correspondence should be addressed. e-mail: sophie.rousseaux{at}ujf-grenoble.fr
In many species, including humans, chromatin remodelling during spermiogenesis is initiated with a marked increase in histone acetylation in elongating spermatids. We have investigated whether this process is disturbed when spermatogenesis is defective or in human testicular tumours. For this purpose, the presence of highly acetylated histone H4 was detected on testicular sections from men with a severe impairment of spermatogenesis of several origins, as well as in different types of testicular tumours. In most tubules devoid of germinal cells (including SCO, Sertoli cell only syndromes) or lacking spermatocytes and spermatids, the Sertoli cells nuclei showed a global increase in histone H4 acetylation. A similar observation was made in the peritumoral seminiferous tubules of testicular tumour tissues, whenever they were lacking germinal cells, with carcinoma in situ (CIS) cells being hypoacetylated. The global hyperacetylation of elongating spermatids during spermatogenesis could be part of an intercellular signalling pathway involving Sertoli cells and germinal cells, which could be disturbed in cases of severe spermatogenesis impairment, as well as in tubes surrounding germ cells in testicular tumours.
Key words: chromatin remodelling/human/Sertoli cells/spermatogenesis/testicular cancer
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