Key Laboratory of the Provincial Education, Department of Heilongjiang for Common Animal Disease Prevention and Treatment, College of Veterinary Medicine, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin, 150030, China.
Key Laboratory of the Provincial Education, Department of Heilongjiang for Common Animal Disease Prevention and Treatment, College of Veterinary Medicine, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin, 150030, China.
Environ Pollut. 2020 Sep;264:114748. doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2020.114748. Epub 2020 May 7.
Deoxynivalenol (DON) is an unavoidable cereal crops contaminants and environmental pollutants, which seriously threated the health of human and animal. DON has been reported to exert significant toxicity effects on spermatogenesis, but the underlying mechanisms remain largely inconclusive. The blood-testis barrier (BTB) provides a specialized biochemical microenvironment for maintaining spermatogenesis. Thus, we hypothesized that DON could impair BTB and lead to spermatogenesis disorder. To confirm this hypothesis, sixty male mice were intragastrically administered with 0, 1.2, 2.4 and 4.8 mg/kg body weight DON for 28 days, and several important observations were obtained in present study. First, we found that DON induced spermatogenesis disorder, reflected by the declines of sperm concentration and quality, sperm ultrastructural damage as well as seminiferous tubular damage. Then, we proved that DON induced BTB disruption as well as decreased the expressions of BTB junction proteins, including Occludin, Connexin 43 and N-cadherin. Finally, the present study showed that DON induced inflammation and inhibited T biosynthesis in testis of mice. These results revealed that DON induced spermatogenesis disorder by BTB disruption associated with testosterone deficiency and inflammation in mice, which shed a new light on the potential mechanisms of reproductive toxicity induced by DON.
脱氧雪腐镰刀菌烯醇（DON）是一种不可避免的谷物污染物和环境污染物，严重威胁着人类和动物的健康。DON 已被报道对精子发生具有显著的毒性作用，但潜在机制仍存在很大争议。血睾屏障（BTB）为维持精子发生提供了一个特殊的生化微环境。因此，我们假设 DON 可能会损害 BTB 并导致精子发生障碍。为了证实这一假设，我们将 60 只雄性小鼠分别灌胃给予 0、1.2、2.4 和 4.8mg/kg 体重 DON，连续 28 天，在本研究中获得了一些重要观察结果。首先，我们发现 DON 诱导了精子发生障碍，表现为精子浓度和质量下降、精子超微结构损伤和生精小管损伤。然后，我们证明 DON 诱导了 BTB 破坏，并降低了 BTB 连接蛋白的表达，包括 Occludin、Connexin 43 和 N-cadherin。最后，本研究表明 DON 诱导了睾丸中的炎症和抑制了 T 细胞的合成。这些结果表明，DON 通过与睾丸酮缺乏和炎症相关的 BTB 破坏诱导精子发生障碍，这为 DON 引起的生殖毒性的潜在机制提供了新的视角。
