Morphological and Transcriptomic Analyses of the Adrenal Gland in Acomys cahirinus: A Novel Model for Murine Adrenal Physiology

This study investigates the adrenal gland structure and gene expression in <i>Acomys cahirinus</i> compared to <i>Mus musculus</i>, aiming to assess its relevance for human adrenal disease modeling. We identified a well-defined zona reticularis in <i>Acomys</i>, resembling the human adrenal cortex. Transcriptomic analysis revealed upregulation of key steroidogenic genes (C<i>yp17a1</i>, <i>Sult1e1</i>, <i>Hsd3b2</i>, <i>Defb18</i>, <i>Kiss1</i>, <i>H2-Ke6</i>), with validation by qRT-PCR and CAGE-seq. The gene <i>Nupl1</i> showed discordant results between RNA-seq and CAGE. Pathway analysis highlighted enrichment of steroidogenesis and adrenal metabolism. Notably, a GTEx-based comparison demonstrated that <i>Acomys</i> adrenal gene expression closely mirrors the expression in the human adrenal cortex, whereas <i>Mus musculus</i> samples diverged toward brain-specific signatures. These findings suggest that <i>Acomys cahirinus</i> represents a promising model for adrenal research, though further studies including single-cell transcriptomics and functional assays are warranted to fully establish its translational potential.