testosterone is believed to play a significant role in spermatogenesis, but its contribution to the process of spermatogenesis is not completely understood. given that extracellular matrix (ecm) facilitates differentiation of spermatogonial stem cells (sscs) during culture, the present study was conducted to elucidate whether testosterone contribute to the permissive effect of ecm on sscs diffe...

The steroidogenic acute regulatory protein (StAR) is a vital mitochondrial protein that is indispensable for the synthesis of steroid hormones in the steroidogenic cells of the adrenal cortex and the gonads. Recent studies have shown that StAR enhances the conversion of the substrate for all steroid hormones, cholesterol, into pregnenolone, probably by facilitating cholesterol entry into the in...

Steroidogenic acute regulatory protein (StAR) delivers cholesterol to the inner mitochondrial membrane, where the cholesterol side-chain cleavage enzyme carries out the first committed step in steroid hormone biosynthesis. StAR expression is restricted to steroidogenic cells and is rapidly induced by treatment with trophic hormones or cAMP. We analyzed the 5'-flanking region of the mouse StAR g...