Alteration in porcine testicular gene expression in response to reduced testicular estradiol synthesis

Early reduction of testicular estrogen synthesis induces increased Sertoli cell proliferation. This experiment was an initial analysis of potential changes in gene expression and included four litters with six boars in each litter.Boars were derived from PIC genetic lines. Half of the boars in each litter were orally treated with the aromatase inhibitor letrozole (0.1 mg/kg) once per week, a teatment that inhibits aromatase by greateer than 90% at this age. the remaining boars in each litter were treted with the canola oil vehicle. Testis samples were collected from vehicle-treated and letrozole-treated boars in each litter at each age (2 weeks, 3 weeks, and 5 weeks). Testis tissue was collected at euthanasia, flash frozen on dry ice, and stored at -80o C prior to library preparation. Libraries were prepared for RNAseq analysis and the results analyzed with the CLC Genomics Workbench Boars were randomly assigned to treatment at 1 week of age with three littermates in each replicate receiving weekly dosing with 0.1 mg/kg of letrozole through 1 week before tissue collection and three additional littermates receiving weekly dosing with the canola oil vehicle. The experiment comprised a total of 4 replicates (24 boars). In each replicate, one vehicle-treated and one letrozole-treated boar donated tiissue at 2 weeks of age, one vehicle-treated and one letrozole-treated boar donated tiissue at 3 weeks of age and the remaining two boars donated tissue at 5 weeks of age.Testis tissue was collected at euthanasia, flash frozen on dry ice, and stored at -80o C prior to library preparation. Libraries were prepared for RNAseq analysis and the results analyzed with the CLC Genomics Workbench