Maccarinelli Federica, Regoni Maria, Carmona Fernando, Poli Maura, Meyron-Holtz Esther G, Arosio Paolo
Molecular Biology Laboratory, Department of Molecular and Translational Medicine DMMT, University of Brescia, Viale Europa 11, 25123 Brescia, Italy.
Reprod Fertil Dev. 2017 Sep;29(10):2005-2010. doi: 10.1071/RD16348.
Mitochondrial ferritin (FtMt) is a functional ferritin targeted to mitochondria that is highly expressed in the testis. To investigate the role of FtMt in the testis we set up a series of controlled matings between FtMt gene-deletion mice (FtMt) with FtMt mice. We found that the number of newborns per litter and the fertility rate were strongly reduced for the FtMt males, but not for the females, indicating that FtMt has an important role for male fertility. The morphology of the testis and of the spermatozoa of FtMt mice was normal and we did not detect alterations in sperm parameters or in oxidative stress indices. In contrast, we observed that the cauda epididymides of FtMt mice were significantly lighter and contained a lower number of spermatozoa compared with the controls. Also, the ATP content of FtMt spermatozoa was found to be lower than that of FtMt spermatozoa. These data show that FtMt contributes to sperm epididymis maturation and to male fertility.
线粒体铁蛋白（FtMt）是一种定位于线粒体的功能性铁蛋白，在睾丸中高度表达。为了研究FtMt在睾丸中的作用，我们在FtMt基因缺失小鼠（FtMt -/-）与野生型FtMt小鼠之间进行了一系列的对照交配实验。我们发现，FtMt -/-雄性小鼠每窝新生仔数和生育率显著降低，而雌性小鼠则未出现这种情况，这表明FtMt对雄性生育能力具有重要作用。FtMt -/-小鼠的睾丸和精子形态正常，我们未检测到精子参数或氧化应激指标的改变。相反，我们观察到，与对照组相比，FtMt -/-小鼠的附睾尾部明显更轻，精子数量更少。此外，还发现FtMt -/-精子的ATP含量低于野生型精子。这些数据表明，FtMt有助于精子在附睾中的成熟以及雄性生育能力。
