Pre- and postmeiotic expression of male germ cell-specific genes throughout 2-week cocultures of rat germinal and Sertoli cells.

The present study was aimed at examining, by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, the expression of germ cell-specific genes in cocultures of Sertoli cells with either pachytene spermatocytes (PS) or round spermatids (RS). In situ hybridization studies showed that the mRNAs encoding phosphoprotein p19 and the testis-specific histone TH2B were specifically expressed in PS whereas those encoding the transition proteins TP1 and TP2 were specific to RS. This resulted in p19:TP1 and TH2B:TP2 ratios that were much higher in PS fractions than in RS fractions prepared by elutriation. When PS or RS were seeded on Sertoli cell monolayers in bicameral chambers, both the number and the viability of the cells decreased during the coculture. However, both parameters were equal to, or higher than, 60% after 2 wk. In PS-Sertoli cell cocultures, the ratios of p19:TP1 and TH2B:TP2 decreased dramatically during the second week of culture; this was due not only to a decrease in the levels of p19 and TH2B mRNAs but also to an enhancement in the relative amounts of TP1 and TP2 as compared to the amounts present on the first day of the coculture. Conversely, both ratios remained low in RS-Sertoli cell cocultures; this was due to a decrease in the levels of the four mRNAs studied during the coculture period. DNA flow cytometry studies showed the occurrence of a haploid cell population (1C) in PS-Sertoli cell cocultures from Day 2 onward, together with a decrease in the tetraploid cell population (4C). No such changes were observed in Sertoli cell-only cultures. By contrast, the haploid population decreased 3-fold during the first week in RS-Sertoli cell cocultures. Immunocytochemical studies demonstrated further that 5-bromo-2'-deoxyuridine-labeled PS of stages V-VIII were able to differentiate into RS under the present coculture conditions. Hence, although clearly imperfect, the present coculture system should help to clarify the local regulations governing spermatogenesis and should allow easier study of spermatogenic cell gene expression.