Understanding the underlying molecular mechanisms of meiotic arrest in organotypic culture of prepubertal rat testicular tissues

We report the use of the Bulk RNA-sequencing technology on in vivo and in vitro cultured prepubertal testicular tissues. The goal of this study is to identify the origin of the maturation arrest observed in rat prepubertal testicular tissue cultured with the organ culture system with a transcriptomic approach. We compared the gene expression of 14.5 dpp rat testicular tissues cultured up to 6, 16, 22 and 28 days. The statistical filtration revealed 600 differentially expressed genes showing significant differential abundances in all three comparisons. This study uncovered for the first time several mechanisms that could explain the meiotic arrest observed in cultures of rat prepubertal testicular tissues.本研究报道了批量RNA测序（Bulk RNA-sequencing）技术在体内（in vivo）与体外（in vitro）培养的青春期前睾丸组织中的应用。本研究旨在借助转录组学方法，明确经器官培养体系培育的大鼠青春期前睾丸组织中观察到的成熟停滞现象的起源。我们对分别培养至第6、16、22及28天的14.5 dpp大鼠睾丸组织的基因表达水平进行了对比分析。经统计筛选后，共获得600个差异表达基因（differentially expressed genes），在全部三组对比中均呈现出显著的表达丰度差异。本研究首次揭示了数种可解释大鼠青春期前睾丸组织体外培养中观察到的减数分裂停滞现象的潜在机制。