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DHCR24, a Key Enzyme of Cholesterol Synthesis, Serves as a Marker Gene of the Mouse Adrenal Gland Inner Cortex

Steroid hormones are synthesized through enzymatic reactions using cholesterol as the substrate. In steroidogenic cells, the required cholesterol for steroidogenesis can be obtained from blood circulation or synthesized de novo from acetate. One of the key enzymes that control cholesterol synthesis...

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Autores principales: Zheng, Huifei Sophia, Kang, Yuan, Lyu, Qiongxia, Junghans, Kristina, Cleary, Courtney, Reid, Olivia, Cauthen, Greer, Laprocina, Karly, Huang, Chen-Che Jeff
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9867314/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36674444
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms24020933
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author Zheng, Huifei Sophia
Kang, Yuan
Lyu, Qiongxia
Junghans, Kristina
Cleary, Courtney
Reid, Olivia
Cauthen, Greer
Laprocina, Karly
Huang, Chen-Che Jeff
author_facet Zheng, Huifei Sophia
Kang, Yuan
Lyu, Qiongxia
Junghans, Kristina
Cleary, Courtney
Reid, Olivia
Cauthen, Greer
Laprocina, Karly
Huang, Chen-Che Jeff
author_sort Zheng, Huifei Sophia
collection PubMed
description Steroid hormones are synthesized through enzymatic reactions using cholesterol as the substrate. In steroidogenic cells, the required cholesterol for steroidogenesis can be obtained from blood circulation or synthesized de novo from acetate. One of the key enzymes that control cholesterol synthesis is 24-dehydrocholesterol reductase (encoded by DHCR24). In humans and rats, DHCR24 is highly expressed in the adrenal gland, especially in the zona fasciculata. We recently reported that DHCR24 was expressed in the mouse adrenal gland’s inner cortex and also found that thyroid hormone treatment significantly upregulated the expression of Dhcr24 in the mouse adrenal gland. In the present study, we showed the cellular expression of DHCR24 in mouse adrenal glands in early postnatal stages. We found that the expression pattern of DHCR24 was similar to the X-zone marker gene 20αHSD in most developmental stages. This finding indicates that most steroidogenic adrenocortical cells in the mouse adrenal gland do not synthesize cholesterol locally. Unlike the 20αHSD-positive X-zone regresses during pregnancy, some DHCR24-positive cells remain present in parous females. Conditional knockout mice showed that the removal of Dhcr24 in steroidogenic cells did not affect the overall development of the adrenal gland or the secretion of corticosterone under acute stress. Whether DHCR24 plays a role in conditions where a continuous high amount of corticosterone production is needed requires further investigation.
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spelling pubmed-98673142023-01-22 DHCR24, a Key Enzyme of Cholesterol Synthesis, Serves as a Marker Gene of the Mouse Adrenal Gland Inner Cortex Zheng, Huifei Sophia Kang, Yuan Lyu, Qiongxia Junghans, Kristina Cleary, Courtney Reid, Olivia Cauthen, Greer Laprocina, Karly Huang, Chen-Che Jeff Int J Mol Sci Article Steroid hormones are synthesized through enzymatic reactions using cholesterol as the substrate. In steroidogenic cells, the required cholesterol for steroidogenesis can be obtained from blood circulation or synthesized de novo from acetate. One of the key enzymes that control cholesterol synthesis is 24-dehydrocholesterol reductase (encoded by DHCR24). In humans and rats, DHCR24 is highly expressed in the adrenal gland, especially in the zona fasciculata. We recently reported that DHCR24 was expressed in the mouse adrenal gland’s inner cortex and also found that thyroid hormone treatment significantly upregulated the expression of Dhcr24 in the mouse adrenal gland. In the present study, we showed the cellular expression of DHCR24 in mouse adrenal glands in early postnatal stages. We found that the expression pattern of DHCR24 was similar to the X-zone marker gene 20αHSD in most developmental stages. This finding indicates that most steroidogenic adrenocortical cells in the mouse adrenal gland do not synthesize cholesterol locally. Unlike the 20αHSD-positive X-zone regresses during pregnancy, some DHCR24-positive cells remain present in parous females. Conditional knockout mice showed that the removal of Dhcr24 in steroidogenic cells did not affect the overall development of the adrenal gland or the secretion of corticosterone under acute stress. Whether DHCR24 plays a role in conditions where a continuous high amount of corticosterone production is needed requires further investigation. MDPI 2023-01-04 /pmc/articles/PMC9867314/ /pubmed/36674444 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms24020933 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Zheng, Huifei Sophia
Kang, Yuan
Lyu, Qiongxia
Junghans, Kristina
Cleary, Courtney
Reid, Olivia
Cauthen, Greer
Laprocina, Karly
Huang, Chen-Che Jeff
DHCR24, a Key Enzyme of Cholesterol Synthesis, Serves as a Marker Gene of the Mouse Adrenal Gland Inner Cortex
title DHCR24, a Key Enzyme of Cholesterol Synthesis, Serves as a Marker Gene of the Mouse Adrenal Gland Inner Cortex
title_full DHCR24, a Key Enzyme of Cholesterol Synthesis, Serves as a Marker Gene of the Mouse Adrenal Gland Inner Cortex
title_fullStr DHCR24, a Key Enzyme of Cholesterol Synthesis, Serves as a Marker Gene of the Mouse Adrenal Gland Inner Cortex
title_full_unstemmed DHCR24, a Key Enzyme of Cholesterol Synthesis, Serves as a Marker Gene of the Mouse Adrenal Gland Inner Cortex
title_short DHCR24, a Key Enzyme of Cholesterol Synthesis, Serves as a Marker Gene of the Mouse Adrenal Gland Inner Cortex
title_sort dhcr24, a key enzyme of cholesterol synthesis, serves as a marker gene of the mouse adrenal gland inner cortex
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9867314/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36674444
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms24020933
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