Gonadal development and sex differentiation of the gonad specific SF-1 knockout mouse

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The orphan nuclear receptor steroidogenic factor 1(SF-1) plays key roles in gonadal development. This study investigates the postnatal development of the testes and the ovaries of a gonad-specific SF-1 knockout(KO) mouse, in which SF-1 was specifically inactivated. In the KO testes, we detected abnormalities in the seminiferous tubule morphology, the positive cell number for SF-1 and Sertoli cell markers, apoptosis, and cell proliferation, at postnatal day 14(P14) and P21.The KO ovaries exhibited morphologically abnormal ovarian cord and decreased SF-1 immunoreactivity as early as P0.We further investigated testes and ovaries that were exposed to the endocrine disruptor DES during embryonic development, showing that the DES-exposed ovary exhibited morphological abnormalities accompanied with decreased SF-1 expression, during the first 2 weeks after birth. These results suggest SF-1 is essential for normal formation of the seminiferous tubule and the ovarian cord during postnatal development.