BACKGROUND Subfertility affects one in eight couples. In up to 50% of cases, the male partner has low semen quality. Four Y chromosome deletions, i.e. Azoospermia factor a (AZFa), P5/proximal-P1 (AZFb), P5/distal-P1 and AZFc deletions, are established causes of low semen quality. Whether a recently identified partial AZFc deletion, the gr/gr deletion, also causes low semen quality is at present...

The glucocorticoid receptor (GR) coordinates a multitude of physiological responses in vivo. In vitro, glucocorticoids are required for sustained proliferation of erythroid progenitors (ebls). Here, we analyze the impact of the GR on erythropoiesis in vivo, using GR-deficient mice or mice expressing a GR defective for transactivation. In vitro, sustained proliferation of primary ebls requires a...

BACKGROUND The Y chromosome gr/gr microdeletion eliminates two copies of the DAZ gene and several additional transcriptional units and has been associated as a risk factor for infertility. Our objective was to study the presence of the gr/gr deletion in ICSI candidates in our population and to determine whether the laboratory, clinical and ICSI outcome were different in the gr/gr deleted patien...

Peripubertal gilts (n = 25) were treated with corn oil (CO) or ovarian steroids, one month following an ovariectomy. The first day of treatment was assigned as the first day of the experiment. The gilts received: Group (Gr) I (n = 4)--CO (2 mL x day(-1) from 1st to 12th day), Gr II (n = 4) and Gr III (n = 4)--progesterone (P4; 10 to 100 mg x day(-1) from 1st to 12th day), Gr IV (n = 5)--estradi...

To investigate the contribution of the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) in skin development and the mechanisms underlying this function, we have analyzed two mouse models in which GR has been functionally inactivated: the knockout GR(-/-) mice and the dimerization mutant GR(dim/dim) that mediates defective DNA binding-dependent transcription. Because GR null mice die perinatally, we evaluated skin ...

Let F be a field and Gr(i, F ) be the Grassmannian of idimensional linear subspaces of F . A map f : Gr(i, F ) −→ Gr(j, F ) is called nesting if l ⊂ f(l) for every l ∈ Gr(i, F ). Glover, Homer and Stong showed that there are no continuous nesting maps Gr(i, C) −→ Gr(j, C) except for a few obvious ones. We prove a similar result for algebraic nesting maps Gr(i, F ) −→ Gr(j, F ), where F is an al...

The glucocorticoid receptor (GR) signal transduction and transcriptional regulation are efficiently recapitulated when GR is expressed in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. In this report we demonstrate that the in vivo GR phosphorylation pattern, hormone dependency and interdependency of phosphorylation events were similar in yeast and mammalian cells. GR phosphorylation at S246 exhibited inhibitory ef...

The glucocorticoid receptor (GR) is phosphorylated at multiple sites within its N terminus (S203, S211, S226), yet the role of phosphorylation in receptor function is not understood. Using a range of agonists and GR phosphorylation site-specific antibodies, we demonstrated that GR transcriptional activation is greatest when the relative phosphorylation of S211 exceeds that of S226. Consistent w...

We have measured gastrin receptors (GR) in surgical specimens from 67 patients with primary colon cancers in order to determine the clinical significance of GR in colon cancer. GR analysis was performed on these specimens, and 22 cancers (32.8%) had no detectable GR. Thirty-eight cancers (56.7%) had high-affinity (A,, < 1.0 IIM) levels of GR. Seven cancers (10.4%) had only low-affinity GR (A',,...

The ability of the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) to regulate the transcriptional output of genes relies on its interactions with transcriptional coregulators. However, which coregulators are required for GR-dependent activation is context-dependent and can be influenced by the sequence of the DNA bound by GR and by the nature of the GR isoform responsible for the regulation of a gene. Here, we s...