NHC Key Laboratory of Male Reproduction and Genetics, Guangzhou, China.
Guangdong Provincial Reproductive Science Institute, 17 Meidong Road, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
Sci Rep. 2022 Mar 25;12(1):5179. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-08954-y.
The influence of varicocele and microsurgical varicocelectomy on semen quality remains unclear. Few studies have investigated the relationship between semen metabolism and the abnormalities in reproductive function caused by varicocele, however, there is no study on the changes of semen metabolism after microsurgical varicocelectomy. Here, we used the non-targeted and targeted metabolic analysis to investigate the different metabolites in seminal plasma within normal, varicocele, and varicocelectomy groups. We clearly showed that varicocele significantly affects semen metabolism, and microsurgical varicocelectomy can reverse this metabolic abnormality. Moreover, we characterized the landscape of three dipeptides in the seminal plasma of patients with varicocele that have not been identified previously in human tissues or biofluids. Interestingly, the levels of these three dipeptides decreased after microsurgical varicocelectomy coincident with an improvement in semen quality. Western blotting confirmed the downregulation of DPEP3 (dipeptidase 3) in the varicocele group and the upregulation of DPEP3 in the varicocelectomy group. Furthermore, we found that eight metabolites may be helpful to distinguish varicocele patients from normal subjects. Our results may be applied to earlier diagnosis or to predict the outcome of microsurgery for varicocele.
精索静脉曲张和显微镜下精索静脉结扎术对精液质量的影响仍不清楚。很少有研究调查精索静脉曲张引起的生殖功能异常与精液代谢之间的关系，但是，关于显微镜下精索静脉结扎术后精液代谢变化的研究尚未见报道。在这里，我们使用非靶向和靶向代谢分析来研究正常、精索静脉曲张和精索静脉结扎术组精液中的不同代谢物。我们清楚地表明，精索静脉曲张显著影响精液代谢，显微镜下精索静脉结扎术可以逆转这种代谢异常。此外，我们还对精索静脉曲张患者精液中三种以前在人体组织或生物液中未鉴定的二肽进行了特征描述。有趣的是，这三种二肽的水平在显微镜下精索静脉结扎术后下降，同时精液质量得到改善。Western blot 证实，精索静脉曲张组 DPEP3（二肽酶 3）下调，精索静脉结扎术组 DPEP3 上调。此外，我们发现 8 种代谢物可能有助于区分精索静脉曲张患者和正常受试者。我们的研究结果可应用于早期诊断或预测精索静脉曲张显微镜手术的结果。
