Host: The Japanese Society of Toxicology
Name : The 51st Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Toxicology
Date : July 03, 2024 - July 05, 2024
Sertoli cells, which support germ cells, play a vital role in maintaining the testicular environment. Vimentin, used as a marker to identify Sertoli cells, has been reported to be involved in cell signaling and cell migration as well as in cell support functions. In addition, changes in vimentin expression are linked to various diseases. In this study, we focused on Sertoli cells and explored the relationship between changes in vimentin expression and spermatogenic defects.
Immunohistochemistry using vimentin antibody was conducted on testicular tissue sections from vitamin E-deficient (VED; <0.1 mg /100 g diet) and vitamin A-deficient (VAD; 0 mg /100 g diet) mice as two models with different degrees of spermatogenic defects. Original images were converted to grayscale and then binarized to extract vimentin-positive regions. The proportion of the area occupied by vimentin-positive regions was calculated for the surface area of each seminiferous tubule.
The proportion of the vimentin-positive area in the seminiferous tubule was significantly increased in the VED and VAD mice compared with each control group. In the VED mice, most of the seminiferous tubules had normal morphology, and the proportion of vimentin-positive area was increased even in the seminiferous tubules with no apparent damage. Additionally, both groups exhibited characteristic extension and accumulation of vimentin, likely contributing to increased occupancy of vimentin in seminiferous tubules. Our findings indicate that vimentin is a potential indicator for detecting spermatogenic defects.
