Institute of Molecular Virology, University Ulm Medical Center, 89081 Ulm, Germany.
Institute for Epidemiology and Medical Biometry, Ulm University, 89075 Ulm, Germany.
Int J Mol Sci. 2022 Aug 2;23(15):8563. doi: 10.3390/ijms23158563.
Studies of human semen in cell or tissue culture are hampered by the high cytotoxic activity of this body fluid. The components responsible for the cell damaging activity of semen are amine oxidases, which convert abundant polyamines, such as spermine or spermidine in seminal plasma into toxic intermediates. Amine oxidases are naturally present at low concentrations in seminal plasma and at high concentrations in fetal calf serum, a commonly used cell culture supplement. Here, we show that, in the presence of fetal calf serum, seminal plasma, as well as the polyamines spermine and spermidine, are highly cytotoxic to immortalized cells, primary blood mononuclear cells, and vaginal tissue. Thus, experiments investigating the effect of polyamines and seminal plasma on cellular functions should be performed with great caution, considering the confounding cytotoxic effects. The addition of the amine oxidase inhibitor aminoguanidine to fetal calf serum and/or the utilization of serum-free medium greatly reduced this serum-induced cytotoxicity of polyamines and seminal plasma in cell lines, primary cells, and tissues and, thus, should be implemented in all future studies analyzing the role of polyamines and semen on cellular functions.
在细胞或组织培养中研究人类精液时，受到这种体液高细胞毒性活性的阻碍。导致精液细胞损伤活性的成分是胺氧化酶，它将丰富的多胺（如精液中的精胺或亚精胺）转化为有毒的中间产物。胺氧化酶在精液中的天然浓度较低，但在常用于细胞培养的胎牛血清中浓度较高。在这里，我们表明，在胎牛血清存在的情况下，精液以及多胺精胺和亚精胺对永生化细胞、原代血单核细胞和阴道组织具有高度细胞毒性。因此，在考虑到混杂的细胞毒性作用的情况下，应该非常谨慎地进行研究多胺和精液对细胞功能影响的实验。向胎牛血清中添加胺氧化酶抑制剂氨基胍以及/或使用无血清培养基可大大降低多胺和精液在细胞系、原代细胞和组织中的这种由血清引起的细胞毒性，因此，应该在所有未来分析多胺和精液对细胞功能作用的研究中实施。
