= Diane Rebourcet
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<Diane Rebourcet> is a researcher in reproductive <biology> whose experimental work examines interactions between <cells> in the <testis>. In a 2014 collaborative study, <Diane Rebourcet> and colleagues investigated whether adult <Sertoli cells> support other testicular functions as well as developing reproductive cells. They engineered mice so that <Sertoli cells> expressed a receptor making them susceptible to a selectively administered toxin.<Sertoli cells maintain Leydig cell number and peritubular myoid cell activity in the adult mouse testis by Diane Rebourcet and others>[Abstract and Results: adult cell-specific ablation model; PLOS ONE 9, e105687, 2014]{ref}
Selective <cell ablation> was followed by loss of reproductive cells and a roughly 75 percent decline in adult <Leydig cell> numbers. Removing one population and observing another gives stronger evidence for a functional dependency than simply finding both populations together. The result shows that adult <Sertoli cells> help maintain the <Leydig cell> population in this mouse model; it does not, by itself, distinguish direct cell contact from an indirect signal or establish a human treatment.<Sertoli cells maintain Leydig cell number and peritubular myoid cell activity in the adult mouse testis by Diane Rebourcet and others>[Abstract and Results: Sertoli-cell loss, Leydig-cell counts and retained tubular architecture]{ref}
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