Gene Expression of Adiponectin and Its Receptor2 (AdipoR2) in Reproductive Tract of Growing Prepubertal Afshari Male Lambs

Introduction Adiponectin, a novel adipocytokine mainly produced from adipocytes, acts through binding to its two functional receptors, AdipoR1 and AdipoR2. Some evidence has already suggested that adiponectin can be involved in the regulation of male reproductive functions. Our purpose was to detect of adiponectin and AdipoR2 mRNA transcripts in the reproductive tissues of growing pre-pubertal male lambs as well as adult rams.
Materials and Methods At first, Afshari prepubertal male lambs (n=20), with no apparent abnormalities, were allocated to four different age groups (n=5/age group) including; 1-2 (Group 1), 2-3 (Group 2), 3-4 (Group 3), and 4-5 (Group 4) months of age, afterward were surgically castrated. At a local slaughterhouse, reproductive tissues from five adult Afshari rams (3-4 years-old), with no evident abnormalities, were also collected within 20 minutes after the rams were slaughtered. Both fresh whole testes for lambs and those for adult rams were instantly transported to the laboratory on ice and were frozen in the liquid nitrogen and stored at −80°C until analysis. Total RNA extracted from each tissue sample, converted to cDNA and finally, the relative expression levels of adiponectin and AdipoR2 transcripts were assessed by Quantitative Real time-PCR. Comparative ΔΔCt method was used for quantification of Real-Time PCR outputs. By GenEx enterprise software, obtained fold changes were statistically analyzed.
Results and Discussion By real-time PCR, local gene expression of adiponectin and AdipoR2 was demonstrated in testis parenchyma and three different parts of epididymis (caput, corpus and cauda) for both immature male lambs and adult rams. The results showed that adiponectin and AdipoR2 levels persistently changed during pre-pubertal and pubertal developmental stages. There were no significant differences in adiponectin, and AdipoR2 mRNA levels among various tissues (p>0.05); but, mRNA quantities significantly varied among different age groups (p