Gene expression changes in testes from Abcg8 knockout mice compared to wild-type mice or to Abcg8 knockout mice where plant sterol entry was blocked by ezetimibe

Abcg8 knockout mice, fed chow, are infertile. These mice also are susceptible to absorption and retention of xenosterols contained in the diet. Ezetimibe, a blocker of dieary sterol entry, can reverse the fertility in Abcg8 knockout mice. In order to identify if the xenosterols resulted in disruption of a specific set of genes in the testes, we compared wild-type testes, Abcg8 knockout testes, or testes from Abcg8 knockout mice fed chow supplemented with 0.005% ezetimibe. To identify genes of interest, we reasoned that any causative gene expression changes seen in Abcg8 knockout mice fed chow, resulting in xenosterol exposure and accumulation, leading to infertilty, would be reveresed back to a pattern seen in the wild-type mice, when Abcg8 knockout mice are raised on chow containing ezetimibe (which prevents xenosterol absorption in the intestine). The target of this drug, Npc1l1, is not expressed in the testes. Testes from wild-type mice, Abcg8 knockout mice, and Abcg8 knockout mice fed chow supplemented with ezetimibe were analyzed.