spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


spacer gif
     Home     Help     Feedback     Subscriptions     Archive     Search     Table of Contents    

First published online January 30, 2004

Journal of Cell Science 117, 502e (2004)
© The Company of Biologists Limited
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Related articles in JCS
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Search for Related Content

In this issue

Dynamic junctions at play in spermatogenesis


Cadmium, an environmental pollutant, is bad news for the testis. One of its effects is to disrupt the tight junctions formed by the Sertoli cells in the seminiferous tubules. These tight junctions form the blood-testis barrier (BTB) and, when this barrier is disrupted, germ cell numbers are reduced and infertility results. Now Yan Cheng and colleagues have harnessed the deleterious effect of cadmium to find out how the extensive restructuring of the BTB necessary for normal spermatogenesis is controlled (see p. 783). They show that in rats the cadmium-induced disruption of the BTB (as measured by the loss of the occludin and zonula occludens 1 proteins from tight junctions) is mediated by the TGFß3/p38 MAP kinase signalling pathway. The primary loss of BTB function leads to a secondary disruption of adherens junctions in the testis - adherens junction dynamics are also regulated by TGFß3/p38 MAP kinase signalling. Finally, the researchers propose that the protease inhibitor {alpha}2-macroglobulin plays a crucial role in tight junction and adherens junction dynamics in the testis by interacting with TGFß3.


Related articles in JCS:

Regulation of blood-testis barrier dynamics: an in vivo study
Ching-hang Wong, Dolores D. Mruk, Wing-yee Lui, and C. Yan Cheng
JCS 2004 117: 783-798. [Abstract] [Full Text]  




This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Related articles in JCS
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Search for Related Content