ArticleEndocrinology2014
Translocator protein/peripheral benzodiazepine receptor is not required for steroid hormone biosynthesis.
Article in Endocrinology, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 118 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
118 citing papers in PubMed, 227 citations in OpenAlex.
- Trial
- Target validation uncouples mitochondrial translocator protein from 19-Atriol-mediated inhibition of steroidogenesis and identifies enzymatic targets.The Journal of biological chemistry · 2026Article
- PET Imaging Unveils Neuroinflammatory Mechanisms in Psychiatric Disorders: From Microglial Activation to Therapeutic Innovation.Molecular neurobiology · 2025Review
- STAR/STARD1: A mitochondrial intermembrane space cholesterol shuttle degraded through mitophagy.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Novel Dual Mechanism GRT-X Agonist Acting on Kv7 Potassium Channel/Translocator Protein Receptor Prevents Motoneuron Degeneration Following Exposure to Mouse and Human Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis/Frontotemporal Dementia Astrocyte-Conditioned Media.ACS chemical neuroscience · 2025Article
- Single cell resolution of neurosteroidogenesis in the murine brain: de novo biosynthesis.The Journal of endocrinology · 2025Article
- Cholesterol-dependent enzyme activity of human TSPO1.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Thirty years of StAR gazing. Expanding the universe of the steroidogenic acute regulatory protein.The Journal of endocrinology · 2025Review
- A Comprehensive Functional Investigation of the Human Translocator Protein 18 kDa (TSPO) in a Novel Human Neuronal Cell Knockout Model.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
- Identification of a mechanism promoting mitochondrial sterol accumulation during myocardial ischemia-reperfusion: role of TSPO and STAR.Basic research in cardiology · 2024Article
- Functional role of translocator protein and its ligands in ocular diseases (Review).Molecular medicine reports · 2024Review
- Targeting the Translocator Protein (18 kDa) in Cardiac Diseases: State of the Art and Future Opportunities.Journal of medicinal chemistry · 2024Review
- Regulation of astrocyte metabolism by mitochondrial translocator protein 18kDa.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2023Article
- Indol-3-ylglyoxylamide as Privileged Scaffold in Medicinal Chemistry.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Article
- The Comprehensive Steroidome in Complete TSPO/PBR Knockout Mice under Basal Conditions.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Article
- Short-term effects of etifoxine on human gut microbiome in healthy men.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2023Article
- TSPO is a potential independent prognostic factor associated with cellular respiration and p16 in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.Frontiers in oncology · 2023Article
- Translocator protein in the rise and fall of central nervous system neurons.Frontiers in cellular neuroscience · 2023Review
- Basic Leucine Zipper Transcription Factors as Important Regulators of Leydig Cells' Functions.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Review
58 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
- Commented on by
Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Molecular events that regulate cellular biosynthesis of steroid hormones have been a topic of intense research for more than half a century. It has been established that transport of cholesterol into the mitochondria forms the rate-limiting step in steroid hormone production. In current models, both the steroidogenic acute regulatory protein (StAR) and the translocator protein (TSPO) have been implicated to have a concerted and indispensable effort in this cholesterol transport. Deletion of StAR in mice resulted in a critical failure of steroid hormone production, but deletion of TSPO in mice was found to be embryonic lethal. As a result, the role of TSPO in cholesterol transport has been established only using pharmacologic and genetic tools in vitro. To allow us to explore in more detail the function of TSPO in cell type-specific experimental manipulations in vivo, we generated mice carrying TSPO floxed alleles (TSPOfl/fl). In this study we made conditional knockout mice (TSPOcΔ/Δ) with TSPO deletion in testicular Leydig cells by crossing with an anti-Mullerian hormone receptor type II cre/+ mouse line. Genetic ablation of TSPO in steroidogenic Leydig cells in mice did not affect testosterone production, gametogenesis, and reproduction. Expression of StAR, cytochrome P450 side chain cleavage enzyme, 3β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase/Δ5-Δ4 isomerase type I, and TSPO2 in TSPOcΔ/Δ testis was unaffected. These results challenge the prevailing dogma that claims an essential role for TSPO in steroid hormone biosynthesis and force reexamination of functional interpretations made for this protein. This is the first study examining conditional TSPO gene deletion in mice. The results show that TSPO function is not essential for steroid hormone biosynthesis.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.