Acta Veterinaria et Zootechnica Sinica ›› 2021, Vol. 52 ›› Issue (3): 703-713.doi: 10.11843/j.issn.0366-6964.2021.03.014

• ANIMAL BIOTECHNOLOGY AND REPRODUCTION • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Effect of HSD17B12 Gene on Gonadotropin Synthesis in Hu Sheep Pituitary Cells

YANG Hua, ZHAO Xinyue, WAN Zhen, WANG Feng, ZHANG Yanli*   

  1. Institute of Sheep and Goat Science, College of Animal Science and Technology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China
  • Received:2020-08-25 Online:2021-03-23 Published:2021-03-24

Abstract: This study aimed to explore the effect of 17β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase 12 (HSD17B12) in Hu sheep pituitary on the secretion of pituitary hormones. Three healthy Hu sheep rams at sexually mature stage (9-month-old) with similar weight (about 40 kg) were selected. And the pituitary tissues were collected for HSD17B12 gene CDS region amplification and protein homology analysis to determine the CDS region sequence. The location of HSD17B12 in sexually mature male Hu sheep pituitary was detected by immunohistochemistry. In addition, pituitary cells were isolated in vitro, and after down-regulated the expression of HSD17B12 using RNA interference and cell transfection, the expression levels of hormone-related genes were measured by qPCR. Moreover, the changes of cell proliferation, apoptosis and cycle were analyzed by flow cytometry. The results showed that the CDS region of HSD17B12 gene was 939 bp, and it was highly conserved among species. And the immunohistochemistry analysis indicated that HSD17B12 was positively expressed in most cells of pituitary tissue. After RNA interference of HSD17B12 in vitro, a significant decrease in cell proliferation efficiency (P<0.05), a significant increase in cell apoptosis rate (P<0.05), and significant change in cell cycle (P<0.05) were detected. In addition, the expression levels of gonadotropin synthesis-related genes FSHβ, LHβ and growth hormone gene GH were significantly reduced (P<0.05). The results suggested that interfering the expression of HSD17B12 in Hu sheep pituitary cells could significantly reduce the secretion of gonadotropins and growth hormone by affecting cell proliferation and apoptosis. This study preliminarily proved the important role of HSD17B12 in Hu sheep pituitary, and provided a basis for further exploration of its mechanism.

Key words: HSD17B12, pituitary, Hu sheep

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