Advertisement
Research Article Free access | 10.1172/JCI119653
Unité de Recherches sur l'Endocrinologie du Développement (INSERM), Ecole Normale Supérieure, Département de Biologie, 92120 Montrouge, France.
Find articles by Al-Attar, L. in: JCI | PubMed | Google Scholar
Unité de Recherches sur l'Endocrinologie du Développement (INSERM), Ecole Normale Supérieure, Département de Biologie, 92120 Montrouge, France.
Find articles by Noël, K. in: JCI | PubMed | Google Scholar
Unité de Recherches sur l'Endocrinologie du Développement (INSERM), Ecole Normale Supérieure, Département de Biologie, 92120 Montrouge, France.
Find articles by Dutertre, M. in: JCI | PubMed | Google Scholar
Unité de Recherches sur l'Endocrinologie du Développement (INSERM), Ecole Normale Supérieure, Département de Biologie, 92120 Montrouge, France.
Find articles by Belville, C. in: JCI | PubMed | Google Scholar
Unité de Recherches sur l'Endocrinologie du Développement (INSERM), Ecole Normale Supérieure, Département de Biologie, 92120 Montrouge, France.
Find articles by Forest, M. in: JCI | PubMed | Google Scholar
Unité de Recherches sur l'Endocrinologie du Développement (INSERM), Ecole Normale Supérieure, Département de Biologie, 92120 Montrouge, France.
Find articles by Burgoyne, P. in: JCI | PubMed | Google Scholar
Unité de Recherches sur l'Endocrinologie du Développement (INSERM), Ecole Normale Supérieure, Département de Biologie, 92120 Montrouge, France.
Find articles by Josso, N. in: JCI | PubMed | Google Scholar
Unité de Recherches sur l'Endocrinologie du Développement (INSERM), Ecole Normale Supérieure, Département de Biologie, 92120 Montrouge, France.
Find articles by Rey, R. in: JCI | PubMed | Google Scholar
Published September 15, 1997 - More info
Anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) is secreted by immature testicular Sertoli cells. Clinical studies have demonstrated a negative correlation between serum AMH and testosterone in puberty but not in the neonatal period. We investigated AMH regulation using mouse models mimicking physiopathological situations observed in humans. In normal mice, intratesticular, not serum, testosterone repressed AMH synthesis, explaining why AMH is downregulated in early puberty when serum testosterone is still low. In neonatal mice, AMH was not inhibited by intratesticular testosterone, due to the lack of expression of the androgen receptor in Sertoli cells. We had shown previously that androgen-insensitive patients exhibit elevated AMH in coincidence with gonadotropin activation. In immature normal and in androgen-insensitive Tfm mice, follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) administration resulted in elevation of AMH levels, indicating that AMH secretion is stimulated by FSH in the absence of the negative effect of androgens. The role of meiosis on AMH expression was investigated in Tfm and in pubertal XXSxrb mice, in which germ cells degenerate before meiosis. We show that meiotic entry acts in synergy with androgens to inhibit AMH. We conclude that AMH represents a useful marker of androgen and FSH action within the testis, as well as of the onset of meiosis.