In the testis, the germinal epithelium of seminiferous tubules is surrounded by contractile peritubular cells, which are involved in sperm transport. Interestingly, in postnatal testis, polysialic acid (polySia), which is also an essential player for the development of the brain, was observed around the tubules. Western blotting revealed a massive decrease of polySia from postnatal day 1 towards puberty, together with a fundamental reduction of the net-like intertubular polySia. Using polysialyltransferase knockout mice, we investigated the consequences of the loss of polySia in the postnatal testis. Compared to postnatal wild-type animals, polySia knockouts showed slightly reduced smooth muscle actin (SMA) immunostaining of peritubular smooth muscle cells (SMCs), while calponin, marking more differentiated SMCs, dramatically decreased. In contrast, testicular SMA and calponin immunostaining remained unchanged in vascular SMCs in all genotypes. In addition, the cGMP-dependent protein kinase PKG I, a key enzyme of SMC relaxation, was nearly undetectable in the peritubular SMCs. Cell proliferation in the peritubular layer increased significantly in the knockouts, as shown by proliferating cell nuclear anti (PCNA) staining. Taken together, in postnatal testis, the absence of polySia resulted in an impaired differentiation of peritubular, but not vascular, SMCs to a more synthetic phenotype. Thus, polySia might influence the maintenance of a differentiated phenotype of non-vascular SMCs.
Keywords: polysialic acid; postnatal development; smooth muscle cells; testis.