Spatial transcriptomic landscape of protein-coding genes in descended and undescended testes of dogs with unilateral cryptorchidism

Cryptorchidism is a common congenital disorder of the male reproductive system in dogs. We used the 10x Genomics Visium Spatial Gene Expression platform to profile four testicular tissue sections from two dogs with unilateral cryptorchidism: an abdominally retained testis and its contralateral descended testis, and an inguinally retained testis and its contralateral descended testis. The data reveal spot-level transcriptional differences, depletion of germ cell-associated signatures, and enrichment of Sertoli and peritubular myoid cell-associated signals in the retained testes. Because only two dogs were studied, differential-expression results are descriptive and hypothesis-generating.