The Onset of Heat-Induced Testicular Calcification in Mice: Involvement of the Telomeric Locus on Chromosome 1

Abstract

Spermatocytes of MRL/MpJ mice are more heat resistant than those of C57BL/6 mice in experimental cryptorchidism. This phenotype depends in part on the locus at the 81-cM region of MRL/MpJ-type chromosome 1 (Chr1). To evaluate the function of this locus, we examined pathological changes in mouse testes resulting from transient scrotal heat stress. Immediately after scrotal heat stress, meiosis progression and blood-testis barrier integrity were preserved in MRL/MpJ but not in C57BL/6 mice, nor in a C57BL/6-based congenic strain carrying the MRL/MpJ-derived Chr1 locus (B6.MRLc1). Testicular damage was severe in the weeks after scrotal heat stress in all three strains; however, testicular calcification was observed only in C57BL/6 and MRL/MpJ mice (initially as nanocrystals in mitochondria of degenerating germ cells). In testes, expression of gremlin 2, a bone morphogenetic protein antagonist encoded on Chr1, was markedly higher in B6.MRLc1 than in C57BL/6 or MRL/MpJ mice. Furthermore, gremlin-2 and bone morphogenetic protein 2 mRNA levels in heated testes correlated negatively and positively, respectively, with calcification. Thus, although the MRL/MpJ-derived locus on Chr1 may play a pivotal role in recovery from heat-induced testicular damage, especially via inhibition of calcification, MRL/MpJ mice have a precipitating factor for testicular calcification and heat shock-resistant factors that reside outside the 81-cM region of Chr1.