The isoforms of the highly conserved and ubiquitously expressed 14-3-3 family of proteins function primarily as adapters that modulate interactions between components of various cellular signaling and cell cycle regulatory pathways. Low levels of 14-3-3 isoforms appear to be expressed in most tissues, but specific isoforms or combinations have been shown to be overexpressed in a cell-specific m...

Members of the winged helix transcription factor family are known to regulate epithelial cell differentiation by regulating cell-specific gene expression. rWIN is a newly discovered member of the winged helix family shown to be present in the adult rat testis. In the testis the human homolog of rWIN, HFH-11, was localized to the germ cells (i.e. spermatocytes and spermatids) undergoing spermato...

BACKGROUND The anticancer agent imatinib (IM) is a small molecular analog of ATP that inhibits tyrosine kinase activity of platelet derived growth factors (PDGFs) and stem cell factor (SCF) receptor in cancer cells. However these factors have a key role in regulating growth and development of normal Sertoli, Leydig and germ cells. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to determine cell viabilit...

Transient neonatal 6-propyl-2-thiouracil (PTU) induced hypothyroidism affects Leydig and Sertoli cell numbers in the developing testis, resulting in increased adult testis size. The hypothyroid condition was thought to be responsible, an assumption questioned by studies showing that uninterrupted fetal/postnatal hypothyroidism did not affect adult testis size. Here, we investigated effects of t...

Reducing prepubertal endogenous estrogens led to increased numbers of Sertoli cells and the associated increased testicular size and testicular sperm production capacity in boars. The increased number of Sertoli cells might be due to a longer time for proliferation; delayed differentiation of Sertoli cells during suppressed endogenous estrogens would be consistent with this hypothesized, prolon...