Instituto de Investigaciones Químicas, CSIC, Avenida Américo Vespucio 49, 41092 Sevilla, Spain.
Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, via Costantinopoli 16, 80138 Napoli, Italy.
Int J Mol Sci. 2020 Sep 24;21(19):7022. doi: 10.3390/ijms21197022.
Infertility has become a global health issue, with approximately 50% of infertility cases generated by disorders in male reproduction. Spermatozoa are conveyed towards female genital tracts in a safe surrounding provided by the seminal plasma. Interestingly, this dynamically changing medium is a rich source of proteins, essential not only for sperm transport, but also for its protection and maturation. Most of the seminal proteins are acquired by spermatozoa in transit through exosomes (epididymosomes and prostasomes). The high number of seminal proteins, the increasing knowledge of their origins and biological functions and their differential expression in the case of azoospermia, asthenozoospermia, oligozoospermia and teratozoospermia or other conditions of male infertility have allowed the identification of a wide variety of biomarker candidates and their involvement in biological pathways, thus to strongly suggest that the proteomic landscape of seminal plasma may be a potential indicator of sperm dysfunction. This review summarizes the current knowledge in seminal plasma proteomics and its potentiality as a diagnostic tool in different degrees of male infertility.
不育症已成为全球性健康问题,约有 50%的不育症是由男性生殖系统疾病引起的。精子在精液提供的安全环境中向女性生殖道移动。有趣的是,这个动态变化的环境是蛋白质的丰富来源,这些蛋白质不仅对精子运输至关重要,而且对其保护和成熟也至关重要。大多数精液蛋白是通过精子在通过外泌体(附睾体和前列腺体)运输过程中获得的。大量的精液蛋白,对其来源和生物学功能的日益了解,以及在无精子症、弱精子症、少精子症和畸形精子症或其他男性不育症情况下的差异表达,使得鉴定出了各种各样的生物标志物候选物,并确定了它们在生物学途径中的作用,这强烈表明精液的蛋白质组图谱可能是精子功能障碍的潜在指标。本文综述了精液蛋白质组学的最新知识及其作为不同程度男性不育症诊断工具的潜力。