One of the earliest morphological changes during testicular differentiation is the establishment of an XY specific vasculature. The testis vascular system is derived from mesonephric endothelial cells that migrate into the gonad. In the XX gonad, mesonephric cell migration and testis vascular development are inhibited by WNT4 signaling. In Wnt4 mutant XX gonads, endothelial cells migrate from the mesonephros and form a male-like coelomic vessel. Interestingly, this process occurs in the absence of other obvious features of testis differentiation, suggesting that Wnt4 specifically inhibits XY vascular development. Consequently, the XX Wnt4 mutant mice presented an opportunity to focus a gene expression screen on the processes of mesonephric cell migration and testicular vascular development. We compared differences in gene expression between XY Wnt4+/+ and XX Wnt4+/+ gonads and between XX Wnt4-/- and XX Wnt4+/+ gonads to identify sets of genes similarly upregulated in wildtype XY gonads and XX mutant gonads or upregulated in XX gonads as compared to XY gonads and XX mutant gonads. We show that several genes identified in the first set are expressed in vascular domains, and have predicted functions related to cell migration or vascular development. However, the expression patterns and known functions of other genes are not consistent with roles in these processes. This screen has identified candidates for regulation of sex specific vascular development, and has implicated a role for WNT4 signaling in the development of Sertoli and germ cell lineages not immediately obvious from previous phenotypic analyses.

中文翻译：

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XX Wnt4突变性腺的微阵列分析，旨在鉴定涉及睾丸血管分化的基因。

睾丸分化过程中最早的形态变化之一是建立XY特异性脉管系统。睾丸血管系统源自迁移到性腺的中肾内皮细胞。在XX性腺中，WNT4信号传导抑制中肾细胞迁移和睾丸血管发育。在Wnt4突变体XX性腺中，内皮细胞从中肾迁移并形成雄性腔壁血管。有趣的是，该过程发生在睾丸分化没有其他明显特征的情况下，这表明Wnt4特异性抑制XY血管发育。因此，XX Wnt4突变小鼠提供了将基因表达筛选集中在中肾细胞迁移和睾丸血管发育过程中的机会。我们比较了XY Wnt4 + / +和XX Wnt4 + / +性腺之间以及XX Wnt4-/-和XX Wnt4 + / +性腺之间基因表达的差异，以鉴定在野生型XY性腺和XX突变性腺中相似上调或在XX性腺中上调的基因集。与XY性腺和XX突变性腺相比。我们显示在第一组中确定的几个基因在血管域中表达，并具有与细胞迁移或血管发育相关的预测功能。但是，其他基因的表达模式和已知功能与这些过程中的作用不一致。该筛选已鉴定出可调节性别特异性血管发育的候选物，并暗示了WNT4信号传导在Sertoli和生殖细胞谱系的发展中起着作用，而以前的表型分析尚不明显。