Journal article
Of marsupials and men: "Backdoor" dihydrotestosterone synthesis in male sexual differentiation.
- Biason-Lauber A Department of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology, University of Fribourg, Chemin du Musee 5, 1700 Fribourg, Switzerland. anna.lauber@unifr.ch
- Miller WL
- Pandey AV
- Flück CE
- 2013-02-05
Published in:
- Molecular and cellular endocrinology. - 2013
Androgens
Dihydrotestosterone
Disorders of Sex Development
Genitalia, Male
Humans
Hydroxysteroid Dehydrogenases
Male
Sex Differentiation
Sexual Development
Testis
English
Following development of the fetal bipotential gonad into a testis, male genital differentiation requires testicular androgens. Fetal Leydig cells produce testosterone that is converted to dihydrotestosterone in genital skin, resulting in labio-scrotal fusion. An alternative 'backdoor' pathway of dihydrotestosterone synthesis that bypasses testosterone has been described in marsupials, but its relevance to human biology has been uncertain. The classic and backdoor pathways share many enzymes, but a 3α-reductase, AKR1C2, is unique to the backdoor pathway. Human AKR1C2 mutations cause disordered sexual differentiation, lending weight to the idea that both pathways are required for normal human male genital development. These observations indicate that fetal dihydrotestosterone acts both as a hormone and as a paracrine factor, substantially revising the classic paradigm for fetal male sexual development.
- Language
-
- English
- Open access status
- closed
- Identifiers
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- DOI 10.1016/j.mce.2013.01.017
- PMID 23376007
- Persistent URL
- https://folia.unifr.ch/global/documents/135899
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