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Role of WNT signaling in epididymal sperm maturation

  • Gamete Biology
  • Published:
Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

Spermatozoa maturation, a process required for spermatozoa to acquire progressive motility and the ability to fertilize ova, primarily occurs in the caput and corpus of the epididymis. Despite considerable efforts, the factor(s) promoting epididymal sperm maturation remains unclear. Recently, WNT signaling has been implicated in epididymal sperm maturation.

Methods

To further investigate WNT signaling function in epididymal sperm maturation, we generated Wntless conditional knockout mice (Wls cKO), Wls flox/flox ; Lcn5-Cre.

Results

In these mice, WNTLESS (WLS), a conserved membrane protein required for all WNT protein secretion, was specifically disrupted in the principal cells of the caput epididymidis. Immunoblot analysis showed that WLS was significantly reduced in the caput epididymidis of Wls cKO mice. In the caput epididymidis of Wls cKO mice, WNT 10A and WNT 2b, which are typically secreted by the principal cells of the caput epididymis, were not secreted. Interestingly, sperm motility analysis showed that the WLS deficiency in the caput epididymidis had no effect on sperm motility. Moreover, fertility tests showed that Wls cKO male mice had normal fertility.

Conclusion

These results indicate that the disruption of WLS in principal cells of the caput epididymidis inhibits WNT protein secretion but has no effect on sperm motility and male fertility, suggesting that WNT signaling in the caput epididymidis may be dispensable for epididymal sperm maturation in mice.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Xing-Xu Huang and Yong-Lian Zhang for kindly providing the Lcn5-Cre transgenic mice.

Funding

This work was supported by grants from the Major Research Plan “973” Project (2012CB944702), the Natural Science Foundation of China (31501953, 31501161, 31471352, 31471400, 81270662, and 31171380), and the Academician Workstation Support (Shenyang, Changsha and Shandong).

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Author notes

  1. Jin-Mei Cheng and Ji-Xin Tang contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The State Key Laboratory of Stem Cell and Reproductive Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

    Jin-Mei Cheng, Ji-Xin Tang, Jian Li, Yu-Qian Wang, Xiu-Xia Wang, Yan Zhang, Su-Ren Chen & Yi-Xun Liu

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Jin-Mei Cheng, Ji-Xin Tang, Jian Li & Yu-Qian Wang

Authors
  1. Jin-Mei Cheng
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  2. Ji-Xin Tang
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  6. Yan Zhang
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yi-Xun Liu.

Ethics declarations

All animal experiments were performed in accordance with the protocols approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee at the Institute of Zoology (IOZ), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

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Cheng, JM., Tang, JX., Li, J. et al. Role of WNT signaling in epididymal sperm maturation. J Assist Reprod Genet 35, 229–236 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10815-017-1066-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10815-017-1066-4

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