Figure 6

The effect of maternal progesterone administration (Prog) on gene expression in the fetal testis at d75 gestation (Control = 10; Prog = 7). (a) There was no difference in POU5F1, VASA and DMRT1 that are key genes expressed in germ cells (b) There was no difference in the expression of LHR, STAR, HSD3B1, CYP17 and INSL3 that are key genes expressed in Leydig cells. However, expression of CYP11 was increased in Leydig cells after maternal progesterone administration. (c) There was no significant change of expression of FSHR, WT1, SOX9 that are primarily expressed in Sertoli cells. However other key genes (CYP19, AMH, SHBG) expressed in Sertoli cells were increased after maternal progesterone administration. Box plot whiskers are lowest and highest observed values, box is the upper and lower quartile, with median represented by line in box. Unpaired, two-tailed Student’s t test was used for comparing means of two treatment groups with equal variances accepting P < 0.05 as significant (*P < 0.05, **P < 0.01).