Hou Yuyang, He Yuanping, Wang Jingjie, Zhou Yanfen, Ma Bo, Li Xin, Shi Liang, Zhang Qi
College of Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Engineering, Nanjing Tech University (NanjingTech), 30 South Puzhu Road, Nanjing 211816, People's Republic of China.
School of Economics & Management, Nanjing Tech University (NanjingTech), 30 South Puzhu Road, Nanjing 211816, People's Republic of China.
Clin Chim Acta. 2023 Aug 1;548:117530. doi: 10.1016/j.cca.2023.117530. Epub 2023 Aug 29.
Asthenozoospermia (AZS) is a disease characterized by decreased sperm motility induced by multiple etiologies, and the pathological mechanisms of various AZS are unclear. We simultaneously analyzed the metabolic profiling of four representative AZS to provide new insights into the etiologies of AZS.
Seminal plasma samples were collected from healthy control (HC; n = 30) and four AZS induced by varicocele (VA, n = 30), obesity (OA, n = 22), reproductive system infections (RA; n = 17) and idiopathic (IA, n = 30), respectively, and were analyzed using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Disturbed metabolites and metabolic pathways were compared between AZS and HC, as well as IA and the other three AZS.
A total of 40 different metabolites were identified in the seminal plasma of AZS and HC, of which lactic acid, fructose, citric acid, glutamine and pyruvic acid metabolic abnormalities associated with all the AZS groups, while each AZS group had unique metabolic changes. RA was significantly separated from the other three AZS, and metabolites such as cholesterol, octadecanoic acid and serine mainly contributed to the separation.
The comprehensive metabolomic analysis and comparison of four various AZS provided evidence and clues for the mechanism mining, which will benefit future etiology, diagnosis and treatment of AZS.
弱精子症（AZS）是一种由多种病因引起精子活力下降的疾病，各种AZS的病理机制尚不清楚。我们同时分析了四种代表性AZS的代谢谱，为AZS的病因提供新的见解。
分别从健康对照（HC；n = 30）以及由精索静脉曲张（VA，n = 30）、肥胖（OA，n = 22）、生殖系统感染（RA；n = 17）和特发性（IA，n = 30）引起的四种AZS患者中收集精液样本，并采用气相色谱 - 质谱联用技术进行分析。比较了AZS与HC之间以及IA与其他三种AZS之间代谢物和代谢途径的紊乱情况。
在AZS和HC的精液样本中总共鉴定出40种不同的代谢物，其中乳酸、果糖、柠檬酸、谷氨酰胺和丙酮酸的代谢异常与所有AZS组相关，而每个AZS组都有独特的代谢变化。RA与其他三种AZS明显分开，胆固醇、十八烷酸和丝氨酸等代谢物是导致这种分离的主要因素。
对四种不同类型AZS的综合代谢组学分析和比较为机制挖掘提供了证据和线索，这将有助于未来AZS的病因研究、诊断和治疗。
