Fig. 1: Testosterone production induces intercellular transfer of materials from Leydig cells to testicular macrophages.
From: An extracellular vesicle-mediated mitochondrial transfer network critical for testosterone synthesis
a, Experimental design overview. Primary LCs were isolated from Cyp17a1Cre; R26tdTomato mice and then treated with PBS (control) or hCG (10 international units (IU) l−1). b, Testosterone levels in the supernatant of cultured primary LCs treated with PBS or hCG (n = 4 biological replicates) as in a. c, Representative 3D reconstructions from confocal images of primary LCs showing LC-derived particles (n = 4 biological replicates). d, Number of particles in the two groups (n = 4 biological replicates, ten fields of view were captured and at least 100 cells were analysed for each replicate). e, Experimental design overview. Cyp17a1Cre; R26tdTomato mice were administered intraperitoneal injections of saline (control) or hCG (1 IU per mouse). f, Serum testosterone concentrations in the mice treated with saline or hCG (n = 7 mice per group) as in e. g, Representative 3D reconstructions from confocal images of mouse testes showing LC-derived particles (n = 4 mice per group). h, Number of particles in the two groups (n = 4 mice per group, ten fields of view were captured and at least 100 cells were analysed for each mouse). i, Representative confocal images of the testes of Cyp17a1Cre; R26tdTomato mice (intraperitoneally injected with hCG) stained for the cell markers IBA1 (tMacs), α-SMA (myoid cells), PDGFRα (stromal cells) and α-tubulin (Sertoli cells; n = 4 mice per group). Insets: magnified views of the boxed regions in the main images. DAPI, 4′,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole. j, Percentage of the indicated cell types that co-localized with particles (n = 4 mice per group, ten fields of view were captured and 100 cells were analysed for each mouse). k, Representative confocal images and 3D reconstruction of tMacs taking up tdTomato+ particles from LCs (n = 6 mice per group). l, Percentage of tMacs containing LC-derived particles (n = 6 mice per group). m, Experimental design overview. Cyp17a1Cre; R26tdTomato mice were intraperitoneally injected with saline or hCG (1 IU per mouse). n, Flow cytometry was used to analyse tMacs from the Cyp17a1Cre; R26tdTomato mice in m. o, Percentage of tMacs containing LC-derived particles (n = 5 mice per group). b,d,f,h, Box plots: the box bounds depict the first to the third quartile, with the middle line indicating the median and the whiskers extending to the minimum and maximum values. j,l,o, Data are the mean ± s.e.m. b,d,f,h,j,l,o, Statistical significance was determined using a two-tailed Student’s t-test (b,d,h,l,o), two-tailed Mann–Whitney U-test (f) or one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA; j). Scale bars, 2 μm (c,g,i(insets),k) and 5 μm(i(main images)). Con, control. Schematic in a,e,m created in BioRender. Xia. K. (2026) https://biorender.com/j9ie5sk. Source numerical data are provided.
