ABSTRACT
Uchl1 was found to be involved in spermatocyte apoptosis. The aim of the present study was to test whether Uchl1 and its associated proteins Jab1 and p27(kip1) were involved in spermatogenic damages in response to heat-stress in cryptorchidism. Hematoxylin and eosin (HE) staining and DNA end labeling (TUNEL) were used to observe morphological and apoptotic characteristics of spermatogenic cells; Immunohistochemical analysis was used to detect changes of Uchl1 and its associated proteins Jab1 and p27(kip1) in response to heat-stress from cryptorchidism leading to spermatocyte losses; And protein affinity analysis (pull-down) and immunofluorescence co-localization were used to verify the relevance among the three proteins in spermatocytes. The results showed that, Jab1 and p27(kip1), in parallel to Uchl1, increased in spermatocytes of apoptotic appearances in response to heat-stress, but not in multinucleated giant cells; Jab1 bound to Uchl1 in testis protein extracts, and co-localized with Uchl1 and p27(kip1) specifically in spermatocytes with apoptotic appearances. These results suggest that the accumulation of Uchl1 protein is involved in the heat-stress-induced spermatocyte apoptosis through a new pathway related with Jab1 and p27(kip1), but not the formation of multinucleated giant cells.
Subject(s)
Apoptosis , Cryptorchidism/pathology , Spermatocytes/cytology , Ubiquitin Thiolesterase/metabolism , Animals , COP9 Signalosome Complex , Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitor p27/metabolism , Hot Temperature , Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins/metabolism , Male , Mice , Peptide Hydrolases/metabolism , Spermatocytes/metabolism , Stress, PhysiologicalABSTRACT
p28, a protein derived from toad (Bufo bufo gargarizans) oocytes, has a high level of sequence homology to mouse UCH L1. We report here that it is a toad ubiquitin carboxyl-terminal hydrolase (UCH), termed tUCH for its ability to hydrolyze the UCH substrate ubiquitin ethyl ester (UboEt). The similarities of secondary structures between tUCH and UCH L1 highlight that they might have common functions. The total extracted proteins both from immature and matured oocytes contain 2% tUCH. The enzyme kinetic constants (Km and Kc) both of the tUCH and UCH L1 reveal that they possess similar catalytic properties on their common substrate Ub-AMC. Anti-tUCH monoclonal antibody (tUCH mAb) can recognize tUCH and dominant-negative tUCH (tUCH C(90)S), but not mouse UCH L1, suggesting that it does not target on the conservative UCH active sites. Furthermore, anti-tUCH mAb when injected into oocytes blocked the progesterone-induced GVBD but anti-tUCH mAb could not inhibit the tUCH catalytic hydrolysis of Ub-AMC, revealing that the implication of tUCH in the oocyte maturation regulation is not dependent on its UCH activity.
