Abstract Follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) is a glycoprotein and gonadotropin hormone synthesized and secreted by animal anterior pituitary basophils. In males, FSH participates in spermatogenesis. In this study, weight analysis, histopathology analysis, qRT-PCR analysis and methylation analysis were performed to evaluate the influence of Erhualian FSH high-level expression on the testes of F1 Erhualian FSH transgenic (TG) boars and their wild-type (WT) male full/half sibs at the age of 15 d (n=6) and adulthood (n=10). Six suckling piglets including 3 TG and 3 full-sib WT individuals and 10 adult boars including 5 TG and 5 half-sib WT individuals were slaughtered. Absolute weight and relative weight analysis of the testes were performed. There were no significant differences in the testes absolute weight of suckling piglets (P＞0.05) and adult boars (P＞0.05). There were also no significant differences in the testes/body weight ratio of suckling piglets (P＞0.05) and adult boars (P＞0.05). Testes absolute weight and testes/body weight ratio analysis showed that Erhualian FSH high-level expression had no influence on the testes weight. Paraffin sections of the testes samples were stained with hematoxylin-eosin (H&E) and observed with a BA410 microscope (Motic, China). Gonocyte cells per unit area (about 171 100 μm2) for suckling piglets and intersitial cells per unit area (about 39 000 μm2) for adult boars were calculated. Area and perimeter per seminiferous tubule were also calculated using Image-Pro Plus 6.0 software. Only a significant increase were observed in gonocyte cells per unit area of 3 TG suckling piglets compared with that of 3 full-sib WT suckling piglets (P＜0.001). Analysis of HE-stained paraffin sections of testes indicated that Erhualian FSH high-level expression could increase gonocyte number and had no effect on the organizational structure of the testes of Large White boars. The expression levels of genes related to reproduction in the testes were detected by qRT-PCR. No significant difference (P＞0.05) was found in the expression levels of follicle-stimulating hormone (FSHR), luteinizing hormone receptor gene(LHR), and androgen receptor gene (AR) between TG boars and their WT male full/half sibs at the age of 15 d and adulthood, demonstrating that Erhualian FSH high-level expression had no influence on the expression levels of genes related to reproduction in the testes. Meanwhile, the methylation levels of FSHβ and FSHR in the testes were detected. There was no significant difference (P＞0.05) in the methylation levels of FSHβ and FSHR between adult TG and WT boars, revealing that Erhualian FSH high-level expression had no effect on the methylation levels of FSHβ and FSHR in the testes of Large White boars. The results in this study showed that high-level expression of Erhualian FSH could increase gonocyte number to improve spermatogenesis ability of Large White boars and also provides references for spermatogenesis process in human studies.
XU Pan,LI Kuan-Bei,JIANG Kai, et al. Influence of Erhualian FSH High-level Expression on the Testes of Large White Boars (Sus scrofa)[J]. , 2016, 24(12): 1882-1889.
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