1. TCF21+ mesenchymal cells contribute to testis somatic cell development, homeostasis, and regeneration in mice
- Author
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Kyle E. Orwig, Caleb Sultan, Jason R. Spence, Michael Czerwinski, Jun Li, Gabriel L. Manske, Michelle D. Tallquist, Adrienne Niederriter Shami, Xianing Zheng, Qianyi Ma, Hailey Larose, Lindsay Moritz, Yu chi Shen, Haolin Chen, Meena Sukhwani, Stephen J. Gurczynski, and Saher Sue Hammoud
- Subjects
0301 basic medicine ,Male ,Somatic cell ,Germline development ,Science ,Population ,General Physics and Astronomy ,Reproductive biology ,Mice, Transgenic ,Biology ,General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology ,Germline ,Article ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,Testis ,Basic Helix-Loop-Helix Transcription Factors ,Animals ,Homeostasis ,Regeneration ,Cell Lineage ,Progenitor cell ,education ,Transcriptomics ,Tissue homeostasis ,Cells, Cultured ,Progenitor ,education.field_of_study ,Multidisciplinary ,Regeneration (biology) ,Gene Expression Profiling ,Mesenchymal stem cell ,Leydig Cells ,RNA sequencing ,Cell Differentiation ,Mesenchymal Stem Cells ,General Chemistry ,Cell biology ,Mice, Inbred C57BL ,030104 developmental biology ,Female ,Single-Cell Analysis ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery - Abstract
Testicular development and function rely on interactions between somatic cells and the germline, but similar to other organs, regenerative capacity declines in aging and disease. Whether the adult testis maintains a reserve progenitor population remains uncertain. Here, we characterize a recently identified mouse testis interstitial population expressing the transcription factor Tcf21. We found that TCF21lin cells are bipotential somatic progenitors present in fetal testis and ovary, maintain adult testis homeostasis during aging, and act as potential reserve somatic progenitors following injury. In vitro, TCF21lin cells are multipotent mesenchymal progenitors which form multiple somatic lineages including Leydig and myoid cells. Additionally, TCF21+ cells resemble resident fibroblast populations reported in other organs having roles in tissue homeostasis, fibrosis, and regeneration. Our findings reveal that the testis, like other organs, maintains multipotent mesenchymal progenitors that can be potentially leveraged in development of future therapies for hypoandrogenism and/or infertility., Whether the adult testis harbours a somatic progenitor population is unknown. Here, the authors provide evidence that the testis interstitial cells expressing the transcription factor Tcf21 maintain adult testis homeostasis during aging, and act as potential reserve somatic progenitors following injury.
- Published
- 2021