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

孤儿核受体甾体生成因子1（SF-1）在性腺发育中起关键作用。本研究研究了性腺特异性SF-1敲除（KO）小鼠的睾丸和卵巢的出生后发育，其中SF-1特异性失活。在KO睾丸中，我们在出生后14天（P14）和P21天检测到精子小管形态异常，SF-1和Sertoli细胞标记物阳性细胞数，凋亡和细胞增殖。KO卵巢早在P0时就表现出卵巢索形态异常和SF-1免疫反应性下降。我们进一步研究了胚胎发育过程中暴露于内分泌干扰物DES的睾丸和卵巢，结果显示，在出生后的前2周，暴露于DES的卵巢出现形态异常，并伴有SF-1表达下降。这些结果表明，在产后发育过程中，SF-1对精管和卵巢索的正常形成至关重要。

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.