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29 September 2010 Vitamin A Deficiency Results in Meiotic Failure and Accumulation of Undifferentiated Spermatogonia in Prepubertal Mouse Testis
Hui Li, Krzysztof Palczewski, Wolfgang Baehr, Margaret Clagett-Dame
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Abstract

Vitamin A (retinol) is required for maintenance of adult mammalian spermatogenesis. In adult rodents, vitamin A withdrawal is followed by a loss of differentiated germ cells within the seminiferous epithelium and disrupted spermatogenesis that can be restored by vitamin A replacement. However, whether vitamin A plays a role in the differentiation and meiotic initiation of germ cells during the first round of mouse spermatogenesis is unknown. In the present study, we found that vitamin A depletion markedly decreased testicular expression of the all-trans retinoic acid-responsive gene, Stra8, and caused meiotic failure in prepubertal male mice lacking lecithin:retinol acyltransferase (Lrat), encoding for the major enzyme in liver responsible for the formation of retinyl esters. Rather than undergoing normal differentiation, germ cells accumulated in the testes of Lrat−/− mice maintained on a vitamin A-deficient diet. These results, together with our previous observations that germ cells fail to enter meiosis and remain undifferentiated in embryonic vitamin A-deficient ovaries, support the hypothesis that vitamin A regulates the initiation of meiosis I of both oogenesis and spermatogenesis in mammals.

Hui Li, Krzysztof Palczewski, Wolfgang Baehr, and Margaret Clagett-Dame "Vitamin A Deficiency Results in Meiotic Failure and Accumulation of Undifferentiated Spermatogonia in Prepubertal Mouse Testis," Biology of Reproduction 84(2), 336-341, (29 September 2010). https://doi.org/10.1095/biolreprod.110.086157
Received: 20 May 2010; Accepted: 1 September 2010; Published: 29 September 2010
KEYWORDS
developmental biology
gamete biology
germ cells
male reproductive tract
meiosis
retinoic acid
retinol
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