Abstract
D-aspartate and human chorionic gonadotropin act synergistically to increase testosterone production in purified rat Leydig cells, and D-aspartate stimulates testosterone synthesis even in the absence of human chorionic gonadotropin stimulation. In addition, D-aspartate enhances steady-state cellular mRNA and protein levels of steroidogenic acute regulatory protein, which is a key regulatory factor in gonadal and adrenal steroidogenesis. D-aspartate therefore appears to increase testosterone production in rat Leydig cells by stimulating steroidogenic acute regulatory protein gene expression. To our knowledge, this is the first report demonstrating a direct effect of D-aspartate on gene expression in mammalian cells. Copyright (C) 1999 Federation of European Biochemical Societies.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 317-320 |
| Number of pages | 4 |
| Journal | FEBS Letters |
| Volume | 454 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1999 Jul 9 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- D-aspartate
- Leydig cell
- StAR
- Steroidogenic acute regulatory protein
- Testosterone
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Biophysics
- Structural Biology
- Biochemistry
- Molecular Biology
- Genetics
- Cell Biology