Gonadal cell apoptosis.

Apoptosis is an important cellular process by which superfluous or unwanted cells are deleted from an organism during tissue remodeling and differentiation. Recent studies have demonstrated the role of this programmed cell death or "controlled cell suicide" in the physiological function of an organism. Suppression of apoptosis increases the susceptibility of an individual to malignancy whereas uncontrolled cell death is associated with degenerative diseases. Normal development of both female and male gonads is characterized by massive cell death. More than 99% of ovarian follicles endowed at early life are destined to undergo apoptosis and the exhaustion of these follicles serves as a "clock" for female reproductive senescence. In the testis, up to 75% of male germ cells also undergo apoptosis, perhaps as a mechanism to delete superfluous or defective germ cells. Gonadal cell apoptosis provides valuable models to study hormonal regulation of apoptosis. In the ovary, gonadotropins, estrogens, growth hormone, growth factors (IGFI, EGF/TGF-alpha, basic FGF), cytokine (interleukin-1 beta) and nitric oxide act in concert to ensure the survival of preovulatory follicles. In contrast, androgens, interleukin-6 and gonadal GnRH-like peptide are apoptotic factors. Developmental studies further indicate that fractions of endowed follicles are recruited throughout the reproductive life whereas most of the primordial follicles are "arrested" at the initial stage of development for a prolonged time. Because a transcriptional factor WT1 is expressed in high levels in follicles at early stages of development and because WT1 over-expression represses the promoter activity of inhibin-alpha gene, this nuclear protein may be important in the maintenance of follicles at early stages of development. Once a cohort of follicles is recruited to grow, it is destined to undergo apoptosis unless rescued by survival factors. After puberty onset and under gonadotropin stimulation, some of the growing antral follicles are "selected" to continue their final maturation and secrete high levels of estrogens to trigger ovulation. Following repeated cycles of recruitment, atresia or ovulation, the follicle reserve is exhausted, thus signaling the onset of reproductive senescence. Although the somatic granulosa cell is the major cell type undergoing apoptosis in the ovary, the germ cells in the testis also exhibit signs of apoptotic cell demise. In the testis, gonadotropins and androgens act as survival factors whereas exposure to elevated temperature in cryptorchid testes increases apoptosis. In the seasonally breeding hamster model, photoperiod-entrained regression and recrudescence of testis tissue serves as a unique natural model of apoptosis. With recent advances in our understanding of the cellular mechanism of apoptosis, including the elucidation of the Ced9/bc12 and Ced3/ICE family of proteins, further investigation of gonadal apoptosis may lead to a better understanding of gonadal degenerative disorders (such as premature ovarian failure and oligospermia), reproductive senescence and tumorigenesis. The gonadal model should also be valuable in studying the regulation of intracellular apoptosis genes by external hormonal signals.