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ULK1 affects cell viability of goat Sertoli cell by modulating both autophagy and apoptosis

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Abstract

Sertoli cells (SCs) are necessary for proper germ cell development and viability. Unc-51 like autophagy activating kinase (ULK1) protein kinase is an important regulator of autophagy activation. This study aims to investigate the role of autophagy promoter ULK1 on cell viability of goat SCs. Our results showed that ULK1 knockdown in goat SCs decreased autophagy activation, which was confirmed by decreased expression of autophagy-related markers including LC3, Beclin1, Atg5, and Atg7 (P < 0.05). Meanwhile, lower ULK1 levels resulted in decreased expressions of goat SC marker genes ABP, AMH, FASL, and GATA4. However, a reverse trend of these parameters occurred when the goat SCs were transfected with ULK1 overexpression construct; higher ULK1 levels in goat SCs also decreased the ratio of Bax/Bcl-2. Moreover, ULK1 overexpression in goat SCs activated the autophagy levels when cells were exposed to an environmental contaminant bisphenol A (BPA). The above results indicated that ULK1 gene might play important roles in goat SC function by regulating cell viability.

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Acknowledgments

The authors sincerely thank all the members of their laboratory for technical assistance during the preparation of the study.

Funding

This study was financially supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK20161444) and Chinese Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (KYDK201702).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Animal Science and Technology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, 210095, People’s Republic of China

    Jing Pang, Zifei Liu, Jian Zheng, Jie Zhao, Kaiping Deng, Feng Wang & Yanli Zhang

  2. State Key Laboratory of Reproductive Medicine, Clinical Center of Reproductive Medicine, First Affiliated Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, 210029, China

    Le Han

Authors
  1. Jing Pang
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  2. Le Han
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  3. Zifei Liu
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  4. Jian Zheng
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  5. Jie Zhao
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  6. Kaiping Deng
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  7. Feng Wang
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  8. Yanli Zhang
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Contributions

Jing Pang and Le Han were responsible for the research design, the performance of the whole experiment, analysis of the data, and drafting and revising the manuscript. Zifei Liu and Jian Zheng helped to perform the experiments and analyze the data. Jie Zhao made contribution to perform the experiments. And Yanli Zhang and Feng Wang contributed significantly to the manuscript preparation. All listed authors have made substantial contributions to the research and its publication.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yanli Zhang.

Ethics declarations

All experimental designs and procedures were conducted in accordance with the approved guidelines for Animal Experiments of Nanjing Agricultural University and approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of Nanjing Agricultural University (Approval ID: SYXK2011-0036).

Additional information

Editor: Tetsuji Okamoto

Jing Pang and Le Han are co-first authors

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Pang, J., Han, L., Liu, Z. et al. ULK1 affects cell viability of goat Sertoli cell by modulating both autophagy and apoptosis. In Vitro Cell.Dev.Biol.-Animal 55, 604–613 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11626-019-00371-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11626-019-00371-2

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