Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-hvd4g Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-05T23:11:35.951Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Endocrine and morphological perspectives in testicular descent

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 March 2009

John M Hutson ,
Marilyn L Baker ,
Amanda L Griffiths ,
Yoshitaka Momose ,
Day Way Goh ,
William Middlesworth ,
Zhou Bai Yun  and
Elizabeth Cartwright
John M Hutson*
Affiliation:
Royal Children's Hospital Research Foundation, Melbourne, Australia
Marilyn L Baker
Affiliation:
Royal Children's Hospital Research Foundation, Melbourne, Australia
Amanda L Griffiths
Affiliation:
Royal Children's Hospital Research Foundation, Melbourne, Australia
Yoshitaka Momose
Affiliation:
Royal Children's Hospital Research Foundation, Melbourne, Australia
Day Way Goh
Affiliation:
Royal Children's Hospital Research Foundation, Melbourne, Australia
William Middlesworth
Affiliation:
Royal Children's Hospital Research Foundation, Melbourne, Australia
Zhou Bai Yun
Affiliation:
Royal Children's Hospital Research Foundation, Melbourne, Australia
Elizabeth Cartwright
Affiliation:
Royal Children's Hospital Research Foundation, Melbourne, Australia
*
John M Hutson, Department of General Surgery, Royal Children's Hospital, Flemington Road, Parkville, Victoria 3052, Australia.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Before sexual differentiation occurs at seven weeks, the urological ridges develop in the embryo. These contain the primitive gonads, the mesonephros (embryonic kidneys) and the paired Wolffian (mesonephric) ducts, along with the Müllerian (paramesonephric) ducts. The fundamental mechanism of fetal sexual development was elucidated by Alfred Jost and is determined by the development of the gonad: where testes form in response to the testis-determining gene, and the male testicular hormones cause development of the male phenotype. If ovaries develop or the gonads are absent, female secondary sex characteristics are produced. Recently, the cloning of the putative human testis-determining gene on the Y-chromosome was reported. Assuming this is the true controller of testicular development, an understanding of the initiation of sexual differentiation at the genetic level should emerge in the near future. Of great importance will be the isolation of the testis-determining gene product and identification of other genes that it regulates.

Type
Articles
Information
Reproductive Medicine Review , Volume 1 , Issue 2 , July 1992 , pp. 165 - 177
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Jost, A. Problems in fetal endocrinology: the gonadal and hypophyseal hormones. Recent Prog Harm Res 1953; 8: 379–418.Google Scholar
2 Sinclair, AH, Berta, P, Palmer, MS et al. A gene from the human sex-determining region encoding a protein with homology to a conserved DNA-binding motif. Nature 1990; 346: 240–44.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
3 Hutson, JM. A biphasic model for the hormonal control of testicular descent. Lancet 1985; ii: 419–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
4 Wensing, CJG, Colenbrander, B. Normal and abnormal testicular descent. In: Clarke, JR ed. Oxford revues of reproductive biology, volume 8. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986: 125–30.Google Scholar
5 Cleland, J. The mechanism of the gubernaculum testis [Thesis]. Edinburgh: MacLachlan & Stewart, 1856.Google Scholar
6 Heyns, CF. The gubernaculum during testicular descent in the human foetus. J Anat 1987; 153: 93–112.Google Scholar
7 Backhouse, KM. Embryology of testicular descent and maldescent. Urol Clin North Am 1982; 9: 315–25.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
8 Engle, ET. Experimentally-induced descent of testis in the Macacus monkey by hormones from anterior pituitary and pregnancy urine. Endocrinology 1932; 16: 513–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
9 Lillie, FR. The theory of the freemartin. Science 1916; 43: 611–13.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
10 Williams, MPL, Hutson, JM. The history of ideas about testicular descent. Pediatr Surg Int 1991; 6: 180–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
11 Backhouse, KM, Butler, H. The gubernaculum testis of the pig (Suscropha). J Anat 1960; 94: 107–21.Google Scholar
12 Hamilton, J. The effect of male hormone upon the descent of the testes. Anat Rec 1938; 70: 533–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
13 Hadziselimovic, G, Lee, PA, Fajfer, J, Molenaar, JC, Duckett, JW. Hormonal therapy in crytorchidism. Dialog Paediatr Urol 1989; 12: 1–8.Google Scholar
14 Rajfer, J, Walsh, PC. Hormonal regulation of testicular descent: experimental and clinical observations. J Urol 1977; 118: 985–90.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
15 Rajfer, J. Endocrinology study of testicular descent in the rabbit. J Surg Res 1982; 33: 158–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
16 Backhouse, KM, Butler, H. The cremaster muscle and testicular descent. Ann R Coll Surg Engl 1979; 61: 315.Google Scholar
17 Greene, RR, Burrill, MW, Ivy, A. Experimental intersexuality. The effect of antenatal androgens on sexual development of female rats. Am J Anat 1939; 65: 415–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
18 Scheffer, IE, Hutson, JM, Warne, GL, Ennis, G. Extreme virilization in patients with congenital adrenal hyperplasia fails to induce descent of the ovary. Pediatr Surg Int 1988; 3:165–68.Google Scholar
19 Colenbrander, B, van Rossum-Kok, CMJE, van Straaten, HWM, Wensing, CJG. The effect of fetal decapitation on the testis and other endocrine organs in the pig. Biol Reprod 1979; 20: 198–204.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
20 Baumans, V, Dijkstra, G, Wensing, CJG. The effect of orchidectomy on gubernaculum outgrowth and regression in the dog. Int J Androl 1982; 6: 541–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
21 Forsberg, JG, Jacobsohn, D, Norgren, A. Modifications of reproductive organs in male rats influenced prenatally or pre- and postnatally by an ‘antiandrogenic’ steroid (cyproterone). Z Anat Entwicklung 1968; 127: 175–86.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
22 Perez-Palacios, G, Joffe, RB. This syndrome of testicular feminisation. Pediatr Clin North Am 1972; 19: 653–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
23 Short, RV. Sex determination and differentiation for reproduction in mammals. In: Austin CT, Short RV eds. Embryonic and fetal development, second edition. 1982.Google Scholar
24 Hutson, JM. Testicular feminization: a model for testicular descent in mice and men. J Pediatr Surg 1986; 21: 195–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
25 Hutson, JM, Chow, CW, Ng, WD. Persistent Müllerian duct syndrome with transverse testicular ectopia. An experiment of nature with clues for understanding testicular descent. Pediatr Surg Int 1987; 2: 191–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
26 Hutson, JM, Watts, LM, Montalto, J, Greco, S. Both gonadotropin and testosterone fail to reverse estrogen-induced cryptorchidism in fetal mice: further evidence for non-androgenic control of testicular descent in the fetus. Pediatr Surg Int 1990; 5: 13–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
27 Scott, JES. The Hutson hypothesis. Br J Urol 1987; 60: 74–76.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
28 Hutson, JM, Williams, MPL, Fallal, ME, Attah, A. Testicular descent: new insights into its hormonal control. Oxf Rev Reprod Biol 1990; 12: 1–56.Google ScholarPubMed
29 Picard, JY, Tran, D, Vigier, B, Josso, NO. Maintain des canaux de Müller chez le lapin mâle par immunisation passive contre l'hormone anti-müllerienne pendant la vie foetale. C R Acad Sci II 1983; 297: 567–70.Google Scholar
30 Fentener van Vlissigen, JM, van Zoelen, EJJ, Ursem, PJF, Wensing, CJG. In vitro model of the first phase of testicular descent: identification of a low-molecular weight factor from fetal testis involved in proliferation of gubernaculum testis cells and distinct from specified polypeptide growth factors and fetal gonadal hormones. Endocrinology 1988; 123: 2868–77.Google Scholar
31 Spencer, JR, Torrado, T, Sanchez, RS, Vaughan, ED Jr, Imparato-McGinely, J. Effects of flutamide and finasteride on rat testicular descent. Endocrinology 1991; 129: 741–48.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
32 Husmann, DA, McPhaul, MJ. Time-specific androgen blockade with flutamide inhibits testicular descent in the rat. Endocrinology 1991; 129: 1409–16.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
33 Fallat, ME, Williams, MPL, Farmer, PM, Hutson, JM. Histological evaluation of the inguinoscrotal migration of the gubernaculum in rodents and its relationship to the genitofemoral nerve. Pediatr Surg Int 1992 (in press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
34 Lewis, LG, Cryptorchidism. J Urol 1948; 60: 345–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
35 Beasley, SW, Hutson, JM. Effect of the division of the genitofemoral nerve on testicular descent in the rat. Aust N Z J Surg 1987; 57: 49–51.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
36 Bergh, A, Helander, HF, Wahlqvist, L. Studies on factors governing testicular descent in the rat – especially the role of the gubernaculum testis. Int J Androl 1978; 1: 342–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
37 Frey, HL, Rajfer, J. Role of the gubernaculum and intraabdominal pressure in the process of testicular descent. J Urol 1984; 131: 574–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
38 Beasley, SW, Hutson, JM. The role of the gubernaculum in testicular descent. J Urol 1988; 140: 1191–93.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
39 Tayakkanonta, K. The gubernaculum testis and its nerve supply. Aust N Z J Surg 1963; 33: 61–67.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
40 Greene, RR, Frank, M, Zachmann, M, Prader, A. Growth and sexual development in children with meningomyelocoele. Eur J Paediatr 1985; 144: 146–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
41 Hutson, JM, Beasley, SW, Bryan, AD. Cryptorchidism in spina bifida and spinal cord transection: a clue to the mechinism of transinguinal descent of the testis. J Paediatr Surg 1988; 23: 275–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
42 Kropp, AK, Voeller, KS. Cryptorchidism in meningomyelocoele. J Pediatr 1981; 99: 110–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
43 Larkins, SL, Hutson, JM. Fluorescent antegrade labelling of the genitofemoral nerve shows that it supplies the scrotal region before migration of the gubernaculum. Pediatr surg Int 1991; 6: 167–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
44 Larkins, SL, Hutson, JM, Williams, MPL. Localisation of calcitonin gene-related peptide immunoreactivity within the spinal nucleus of the genitofemoral nerve. Pediatr Surg Int 1991; 6: 176–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
45 Raisman, G, Field, PM. Sexual dimorphism in the neurophil of the preoptic area of the rat and its dependence on neonatal androgen. Brain Res 1973; 54: 1–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
46 Nottebohm, F, Arnold, AP. Sexual dimorphism in vocal control areas of the songbird brain. Science 1976; 194: 211–13.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
47 Gorski, RA, Gordon, JH, Shryne, JE, Southam, AM. Evidence for a morphological sex difference within the medical preoptic area of the rat brain. Brain Res 1978; 148: 333–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
48 Breedlove, SM, Arnold, AP. Hormone accumulation in a sexually dimorphic motor nucleus of the rat spinal cord. Science 1980; 210: 564–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
49 Breedlove, SM, Arnold, AP. Hormonal control of a developing neuromuscular system. II: Sensitive periods for the androgen-induced masculinization of the rat spinal nucleus of the bulbocavernosus. J Neurosci 1983; 3: 424–32.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
50 Breedlove, SM, Arnold, AP. Hormone control of a developing neuromuscular system. I: Complete demasculinization of the rat spinal nucleus of the bulbovacernosus using the anti-androgen flutamide. J Neurosci 1983; 3: 417–23.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
51 Kojima, M, Sono, Y. Sexual differences in the topographical distribution of serotonergic fibres in the anterior column of the rat lumbar spinal cord. Anat Embryol (Berl) 1984; 170: 117–21.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
52 Rosefeld, MG, Mermod, JJ, Amara, SG et al. Production of a novel neuropeptide encoded by the calcitonin gene via tissue-specific RNA processing. Nature 1983; 304: 129–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
53 Gibson, SJ, Gloom, SR, Polak, JM. A novel substance P pathway linking the dorsal and ventral horn in the upper lumbar segments of the rat spinal cord. Brain Res 1984; 301: 243–51.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
54 New, HV, Mudge, AW. Calcitonin gene-related peptide regulates muscle acetylcholine receptor synthesis. Nature 1986; 323: 809–10.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
55 Sigrist, S, Franco-Cereceda, A, Muff, R, Henke, H, Lundberg, JM, Fischer, JA. Specific receptor and cardiovascular effects of calcitonin gene-related peptide. Endocrinology 1986; 119: 381–89.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
56 Maton, PN, Sutcliff, VE, Xhou, Z-C, Collins, SM, Gardner, JD, Jensen, RT. Characterisation of receptors for calcitonin gene-related peptide on gastric smooth muscle cells. Am J Physiol 1988; 254: G789–94.Google ScholarPubMed
57 Santicioli, P, Maggi, CA, Geppetti, P, Del Bianco, E, Theodorsson, E. Release of calcitonin gene-related peptide-like immunoreactivity (CGRP-L1) from organs of the genitourinary tract in rats. Neurosci Lett 1988; 92: 197–201.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
58 Takami, K, Kawai, Y, Shiosaka, S et al. Immunohistochemical evidence for the coexistence of calcitonin gene-related peptide and choline acetyltransferase-like immunoreactivity in neurons of the rat hypoglossal, facial and ambiguus nuclei. Brain Res 1985; 328: 386–89.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
59 Park, W-H, Hutson, JM. The gubernaculum shows rhythmic contractility and active movement during testicular descent. J Pediatr Surg 1991; 26: 616–17.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
60 Yamanaka, J, Metcalfe, SA, Hutson, JM. Demonstration of calcitonin gene-related peptide receptors in the gubernaculum by computerized densitometry. J Pediatr Surg 1992 (in press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
61 Samarakkody, UKS, Hutson, JM. Intrascrotal CGRP 8–37 causes a delay in testicular descent in mice. J Pediatr Surg 1992 (in press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
62 Hutson, JM, Beasley, SW. Descent of the testis. Sevenoaks: Edward Arnold, 1992 (in press).Google Scholar
63 Zorgniotti, AW ed. Temperature and environmental effects on the testis. Advances in experimental medicine and biology, volume 286. New York: Plenum, 1991.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
64 Yamanaka, J, Baker, M, Metcalfe, S, Hutson, JM. Serum levels of müllerian inhibiting substance in boys with cryptorchidism. J Pediatr Surg 1991; 26: 621–23.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
65 Woodhouse, CRJ. Undescended testes. In:Long-term paediatric urology. Oxford: Blackwell Scientific Publications, 1991: 167–75.Google Scholar
66 Huff, DS, Hadziselimovic, F, Snyder, HMcC III, Duckett, JW, Keating, MA. Postnatal testicular maldevelopment in unilateral cryptorchidism. J Urol 1989; 142: 546–48.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed