School of Life Science, Shanxi University, Taiyuan 030006, China; College of Environment and Resource, Shanxi University, Taiyuan 030006, China.
School of Life Science, Shanxi University, Taiyuan 030006, China.
Ecotoxicol Environ Saf. 2018 Dec 15;165:164-173. doi: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2018.08.109. Epub 2018 Sep 5.
As two potential environmental hazards, sulphur dioxide (SO) and arsenic have adverse effects on male reproduction, but the mechanism of which and their combined toxicity are not clear. In this study, we investigate male reproductive toxicity with a focus on spermatogenesis by treating mice with 5 mg/m SO and/or 5 mg/L arsenic. Our results showed that arsenic exposure caused significant decreases in water and food consumption and body weight in mice, whereas these changes were not observed in the SO-only group. Both SO and arsenic reduced sperm counts, increased the percentage of sperm malformation, and induced abnormal testicular pathological changes. Elevated HO and MDA contents, declined T-SOD activity, decreased spermatogenic cell counts, enhanced caspase-3 activity, and increased TUNEL-positive cells were also observed in mice exposed to SO and/or arsenic. Moreover, SO and arsenic co-exposure changed the mRNA levels of Bax and Bcl-2, decreased serum testosterone levels, and downregulated the expression of steroidogenic-related genes (LHR, StAR, and ABP) in mice. These findings provide a new theoretical basis for understanding how SO and arsenic interfere with spermatogenesis leading to infertility. These results also suggest that SO and arsenic co-exposure likely result in an additive effect on male reproductive toxicity in mice.
二氧化硫（SO）和砷作为两种潜在的环境危害物，对男性生殖具有不良影响，但它们的作用机制及其联合毒性尚不清楚。在这项研究中，我们通过用 5mg/m SO 和/或 5mg/L 砷处理小鼠，研究了雄性生殖毒性及其对精子发生的影响。结果表明，砷暴露导致小鼠的水和食物摄入量以及体重明显减少，而在仅 SO 组中未观察到这些变化。SO 和砷均降低了精子计数，增加了精子畸形率，并诱导了睾丸的异常病理变化。在暴露于 SO 和/或砷的小鼠中还观察到 HO 和 MDA 含量升高，T-SOD 活性降低，生精细胞计数减少，caspase-3 活性增强，TUNEL 阳性细胞增多。此外，SO 和砷共同暴露改变了 Bax 和 Bcl-2 的 mRNA 水平，降低了血清睾酮水平，并下调了小鼠类固醇生成相关基因（LHR、StAR 和 ABP）的表达。这些发现为理解 SO 和砷如何干扰精子发生导致不育提供了新的理论依据。这些结果还表明，SO 和砷共同暴露可能对小鼠的雄性生殖毒性产生累加效应。
