College of Pharmacy Seminar: Functional Role of the High-Affinity Copper Transporter 1 (Ctr1) in Cisplatin-Induced Testicular Injury and Spermatogenesis

Please join us for a seminar presented by Dr. Rashin Ghaffari, Postdoctoral Candidate from the Department of Cellular and Molecular Biology, University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Ghaffari's topic is "Functional Role of the High-Affinity Copper Transporter 1 (Ctr1) in Cisplatin-Induced Testicular Injury and Spermatogenesis."

Cisplatin (cDDP) is a highly effective chemotherapeutic drug that has adverse side effects, including prolonged azoospermia and infertility in male patients. The high-affinity membrane copper transporter 1 (CTR1; SCL31A1) is known to be involved in cDDP uptake and is highly expressed in the testes. Conditional knockout of Ctr1 in Sertoli cells (SCs) and in germ cells (GCs) were generated to examine the contribution of Ctr1 in cDDP-induced toxicity by each cell type. Results from these mice models revealed that (1) CTR1 is required for fertility in GCs but not in SCs and (2) cDDP uptake in SCs is independent of the CTR1 pathway.