This Key Event Relationship is licensed under the Creative Commons BY-SA license. This license allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, so long as attribution is given to the creator. The license allows for commercial use. If you remix, adapt, or build upon the material, you must license the modified material under identical terms.
Relationship: 437
Title
Decrease, Translocator protein (TSPO) leads to Reduction, Cholesterol transport in mitochondria
Upstream event
Downstream event
AOPs Referencing Relationship
| AOP Name | Adjacency | Weight of Evidence | Quantitative Understanding | Point of Contact | Author Status | OECD Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PPARα activation in utero leading to impaired fertility in males | adjacent | Low | Arthur Author (send email) | Open for citation & comment | EAGMST Under Review |
Taxonomic Applicability
Sex Applicability
Life Stage Applicability
Translocator Protein (TSPO) mediates the first step of cholesterol transport to the inner mitochondrial membrane cytochrome P-450 side chain cleavage enzyme (P450scc) (Besman et al. 1989). TSPO ligands stimulate steroidogenesis and induce cholesterol movement from the outer mitochondrial membrane (OMM) to the inner mitochondrial membrane (IMM) (Besman et al. 1989). Therefore reduced amount/activity of the TSPO impairs the cholesterol delivery that is necessary for the hormone biosynthesis.
| ID | Experimental Design | Species | Upstream Observation | Downstream Observation | Citation (first author, year) | Notes |
|---|
| Title | First Author | Biological Plausibility |
Dose Concordance |
Temporal Concordance |
Incidence Concordance |
|---|
Biological Plausibility
Dose Concordance Evidence
Temporal Concordance Evidence
Incidence Concordance Evidence
Uncertainties and Inconsistencies
Targeted disruption of TSPO in rat Leydig R2C cells reduced steroidogenesis (Papadopoulos et al. 1997). However, recent experiments with TSPO knockdown in steroidogenic cells was not shown to affect steroid hormone biosynthesis (Tu et al. 2014) as well as in a specific deletion of TSPO in steroidogenic Leydig cells did not impair their synthesis of testosterone (Morohaku et al. 2014). As stated in the recent review "At this point in time, a functional designation for TSPO is still actively being sought" (Selvaraj, Stocco, and Tu 2015).
Response-response Relationship
Time-scale
Known Feedforward/Feedback loops influencing this KER
Rat (Papadopoulos et al., 1997)