The CCR4-associated protein CAF1 has been demonstrated to play several roles in the control of transcription and of mRNA decay. To gain further insight into its physiological function, we generated CAF1-deficient mice. They are viable, healthy, and normal in appearance; however, mCAF1 ؊/؊ male mice are sterile. The crossing of mCAF1 ؉/؊ mice gave a Mendelian ratio of mCAF1 ؉/؉ , mCAF1 ؉/؊ , and mCAF1 ؊/؊ pups, indicating that haploid mCAF1-deficient germ cells differentiate normally. The onset of the defect occurs during the first wave of spermatogenesis at 19 to 20 days after birth, during progression of pachytene spermatocytes to haploid spermatids and spermatozoa. Early disruption of spermatogenesis was evidenced by Sertoli cell vacuolization and tubular disorganization. The most mature germ cells were the most severely depleted, but progressively all germ cells were affected, giving Sertoli cell-only tubes, large interstitial spaces, and small testes. This phenotype could be linked to a defect(s) in germ cells and/or to inadequate Sertoli cell function, leading to seminiferous tubule disorganization and finally to a total disappearance of germ cells. The mCAF1-deficient mouse provides a new model of failed spermatogenesis in the adult that may be relevant to some cases of human male sterility.

A patient with familial male pseudohermaphroditism was considered to be a normal female up to the time of puberty. At puberty, she had normal breast development but there was simultaneous enlargement of the clitoris and the body hair developed with a male distribution. The internal genitalia were male in type. Under basal conditions, the plasma concentration of testosterone (T) was low for a male subject but plasma levels of dehydroepiandrosterone (DHA) and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHAS) were 2-3 times higher than those of normal men. The plasma level of androstenedione (A) was 10 times normal. Following gonadectomy, the pattern of plasma androgens was similar to that of a normal woman. Prior to operation, the basal urinary excretion of estrone, estradiol and estriol was much increased above that of a normal man but it became normal after gonadectomy. Eighteen months after gonadectomy, both before and after adrenal stimulation, the plasma androgens showed the pattern and concentrations expected in the normal adult female. The same could be said of the peripheral in terconversion between T & A. The data strongly suggest that the patient had an incomplete 17-ketosteroid reductase defect and that this defect was limited to the testes. (J Clin Endocr 32: 604, 1971)

No abstract

No abstract