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During testis development, fetal Leydig cells increase their population from a pool of progenitor cells rather than from proliferation of a differentiated cell population. However, the mechanism that regulates Leydig stem cell self-renewal and differentiation is unknown. Here, we show that blocking Notch signaling, by inhibiting gamma-secretase activity or deleting the downstream target gene Hairy/Enhancer-of-split 1, results in an increase in Leydig cells in the testis. By contrast, constitutively active Notch signaling in gonadal somatic progenitor cells causes a dramatic Leydig cell loss, associated with an increase in undifferentiated mesenchymal cells. These results indicate that active Notch signaling restricts fetal Leydig cell differentiation by promoting a progenitor cell fate. Germ cell loss and abnormal testis cord formation were observed in both gain- and loss-of-function gonads, suggesting that regulation of the Leydig/interstitial cell population is important for male germ cell survival and testis cord formation.

Normal development of the pituitary gland requires coordination between the maintenance of a progenitor cell pool and the selection of progenitor cells for differentiation. As Notch signaling controls progenitor cell differentiation in many embryonic tissues, we investigated the involvement of this important developmental pathway in the embryonic pituitary. We report that expression of Notch signaling genes is spatially and temporally regulated in pituitary embryogenesis and implicate Notch2 in the differentiation of several cell lineages. Notch2, Notch3, and Dll1 are initially expressed by most cells within the pituitary primordium and become restricted to a subset of the progenitor cell pool as differentiated pituitary cells begin to appear. Mutations in the transcription factor Prop1 interfere with pituitary growth and cell specification, although the mechanism is unknown. Notch2 expression is nearly absent in the developing pituitaries of Prop1 mutant mice, but unaltered in some other panhypopituitary mutants, revealing that Prop1 is directly or indirectly required for normal Notch2 expression. Transgenic overexpression of Prop1 is not sufficient for enhancement of endogenous Notch2 expression, indicating that there are multiple inputs into this pathway. Dll3 is expressed only in the presumptive corticotrope and melanotrope cells. Analysis of Dll3 null mutants indicates that Dll3 is not required for specification of these two cell types, although there may be functional overlap with Dll1. The spatial and temporal expression patterns of Notch signaling genes in the pituitary suggest overlapping roles in pituitary growth and cell specification.

Neuregulin (NRG), a growth and differentiation factor that signals via erbB receptor tyrosine kinases, has been shown to have biological effects in both the CNS and the peripheral nervous system. We report here that erbB4 is expressed in mature cerebellar granule cells, where it appears to be concentrated at the granule cell postsynaptic terminals. We also show that one form of NRG, Ig-NRG, plays a crucial role in aspects of cerebellar granule cell development in vitro. First, Ig-NRG treatment of granule cells in culture selectively induces the expression of the GABA(A) receptor beta2 subunit. This increase in subunit expression is paralleled by an increase in functional GABA(A) receptors. In contrast to its effects on GABA(A) receptor subunit expression, Ig-NRG does not upregulate NMDA receptor N2B and N2C subunit expression. Second, we demonstrate that Ig-NRG also enhances neurite outgrowth from cultured granule cells. Ig-NRG does not, however, act as a survival factor for the granule cells. We have compared the effect of Ig-NRG with the effects of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a neurotrophin that exerts specific effects on granule cells in culture, and found that BDNF does not mimic the effects of Ig-NRG on GABA(A) receptor subunit expression. Our results show that Ig-NRG has specific effects on granule cell development and maturation and may regulate these processes in vivo.