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영어

Mammalian spermatogenesis consisted of two major parts that included self-renewal of spermatogonia stem cells (SSCs) and meiotic differentiation. Identification of the stage- specific gene expression in developmental germ cells were critical to understand molecular regulation of spermatogenesis. In neonatal testicular tubules, only cells were early spermatogonia and sertoli cells, and they began to differentiate to spermatozoa by chaing the hormonal regulation at puberty. In mice, several established markers including Oct4, Gfr-α1, Plzf, Utf1, Vasa, Sall4 and Lin28 were known to maintain self-renewal and stemness. Based on these previous studies, the expressions of Vasa, Sall4 and Lin28 were determined in neonatal, pre-pubertal, pubertal and post-pubertal stages of boar germ cells. As expected, the expression of Vasa, Sall4 and Lin28 were identified in PGP9.5 positive cells which is regarded as an undifferentiated spermatogonia, from the birth to pre-pubertal stages. However, expression patterns of these genes were changed after puberty that Vasa was expressed in secondary speramatocytes that were positive to C-kit and Scp3, but negative to Acrosin during the pubertal and post-pubertal stages. Expression of Sall4 was identified in the cells of late meiotic stages that were positive to C-kit, but negative to Scp3. In addition, Lin28 was expressed in acrosin positive, but C-kit and Scp3 negative cells. In the present study, expressions of Vasa, Sall4 and Lin28 were determined during meiotic spermatogenesis. The expression patterns of these genes were identical to mice before puberty, however each gene expressions after puberty were differ. This data indicates that Vasa, Sall4 and Lin28 can be the useful marker to understand spermatogenesis in boar testis.