Extended Data Fig. 1: LCs release extracellular particles in response to testosterone production.

a, Schematic diagram depicts experimental design. b, The gating strategy of primary LCs sorting by FACS. c, Representative images of primary tdTomato⁺ LCs stained with CYP17A1, F4/80 and DAPI (n = 5 biological replicates). Scale bar, 10 μm. d, Quantification of the proportion of CYP17A1⁺ LCs among tdTomato⁺ cells (n = 5 biological replicates). e, Schematic diagram depicts experimental design. Primary LCs were treated with PBS (Con) or hCG (10 IU/L). f, Representative confocal images of primary LCs showing LC-derived particles (n = 4 biological replicates per group). Scale bars, 10 μm. Inset shows boxed regions that are magnified. Scale bars, 5 μm. g, Schematic diagram depicts the experimental design. Mice received i.p. injections of saline (Con) or hCG (1 IU/mouse). h, Representative confocal images of testicular sections from Cyp17a1^Cre; R26^tdTomato mice, illustrating the presence of LCs and LC-derived particles (n = 4 mice per group per group). Scale bars, 5 μm. Inset shows boxed regions that are magnified. Scale bars, 2 μm. i, Schematic diagram depicts experimental design. Cyp17a1^Cre; R26^tdTomato mice received i.p. injections of saline (Con) or LH (50 μg/mouse). j, The serum testosterone concentrations were analysed in the mice treated with saline (Con) or LH (n = 6 mice per group). k, Representative confocal images of testicular sections from Cyp17a1^Cre; R26^tdTomato mice, illustrating the presence of LCs and LC-derived particles. Scale bars, 3 μm. Inset shows boxed regions that are magnified. Scale bars, 1 μm. l, The number of particles were quantified in the two groups (n = 6 mice per group). Data are represented by mean ± SEM (d,j,l). Significances were determined using Two-tailed Welch’s t-test (j) or Two-tailed Student’s t-test (l). Schematics in a,e,g,i created in BioRender. Xia, K. (2026) https://biorender.com/y8vgwsu. Source numerical data are provided.

Source Data