Figure 6

Quantification of podocin mRNA levels in the testes of infertile Sertoli cell-only syndrome patients shows no podocin expression. (a) Quantitative real-time PCR shows a complete down-regulation of podocin in testes of Sertoli cell-only syndrome patients (n=5), (b) whereas the WT-1 expression is slightly, but not significantly, enhanced in the testes of these patients. These data demonstrate that the lack of podocin is not simply a consequence of a WT-1 reduction. mRNA expression was normalized to the housekeeping gene β2-microglobulin. (c) Conventional RT–PCR of podocin in normal testes and testes of five Sertoli cell-only syndrome patients, confirming the results shown in (a). Podocin expression in the kidney (ki) was used as a positive control. Data represent means±s.e.m. ^*P=0.017; by Mann–Whitney's U-test for unpaired data.