Guo Qing, Li Tian-Feng, Huang Jiang, Li Jing-Chun, Zhang Ze-Cai, Qu Yong-Li
College of Animal Science and Technology, Heilongjiang Bayi Agricultural University, Daqing, Heilongjiang, China.
Heilongjiang Key Laboratory of Efficient Utilization of Feed Resources and Nutrition Manipulation in Cold Region, Heilongjiang Bayi Agricultural University, Daqing, Heilongjiang, China.
Front Vet Sci. 2024 May 23;11:1340591. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2024.1340591. eCollection 2024.
Orchitis is a common reproductive disease of male animals, which has serious implications to human and animal reproduction. Additionally, phlorizin (PHN), a common polyphenol in apples and strawberries, has a variety of biological activities, including antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetic, and anti-aging activities. We aimed to determine the protective effects and potential mechanisms of PHN in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced acute orchitis in mice.
After 21 days of PHN pretreatment, mice were injected with LPS to induce testicular inflammation, and then the changes of testicular tissue structure, expression of inflammatory factors, testosterone level, expression of testosterone-related genes, adhesion gene and protein expression were detected, and the structural changes in the intestinal flora after PHN treatment were further detected by 16SRNA.
Our results demonstrated that PHN treatment reduced LPS-induced testicular injury and body and testicular weight losses. The mRNA expression levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines-related genes and antioxidant enzyme activity were also decreased and elevated, respectively, by PHN administration; however, PHN treatment also reduced the LPS-induced decrease in testosterone levels in the testes. Additionally, further studies found that PHN increased the expression of marker proteins zonula occludens-1 (ZO-1) and occludin associated with the blood testosterone barrier compared with that in LPS treatment groups. To further examine the potential mechanisms of the protective effect of PHN on LPS-induced testicular injury, we compared the differences of gut microbiota compositions between the 100 mg/kg PHN treatment group and the control group using 16SRNA. Metagenomic analyses indicated that the abundances of , , , , and in the PHN treatment group improved, while potential microbes that can induce intestinal diseases, including , , , and decreased in the PHN treatment group.
Our results indicate that PHN pretreatment might alleviate orchitis by altering the composition of gut microflora, which may provide a reference for reducing the occurrence of acute orchitis in male animals.
睾丸炎是雄性动物常见的生殖疾病，对人类和动物的繁殖有严重影响。此外，根皮苷（PHN）是苹果和草莓中常见的一种多酚，具有多种生物活性，包括抗氧化、抗炎、抗糖尿病和抗衰老活性。我们旨在确定PHN对脂多糖（LPS）诱导的小鼠急性睾丸炎的保护作用及潜在机制。
PHN预处理21天后，给小鼠注射LPS以诱导睾丸炎症，然后检测睾丸组织结构变化、炎症因子表达、睾酮水平、睾酮相关基因表达、黏附基因及蛋白表达，并通过16S RNA进一步检测PHN处理后肠道菌群的结构变化。
我们的结果表明，PHN处理减轻了LPS诱导的睾丸损伤以及体重和睾丸重量的减轻。给予PHN还分别降低了促炎细胞因子相关基因的mRNA表达水平并提高了抗氧化酶活性；然而，PHN处理也减少了LPS诱导的睾丸中睾酮水平的降低。此外，进一步研究发现，与LPS处理组相比，PHN增加了与血睾酮屏障相关的标记蛋白紧密连接蛋白1（ZO-1）和闭合蛋白的表达。为了进一步研究PHN对LPS诱导的睾丸损伤保护作用的潜在机制，我们使用16S RNA比较了100mg/kg PHN处理组和对照组之间肠道微生物群组成的差异。宏基因组分析表明，PHN处理组中 、 、 、 和 的丰度有所改善，而PHN处理组中可诱发肠道疾病的潜在微生物，包括 、 、 和 减少。
我们的结果表明，PHN预处理可能通过改变肠道微生物群组成来减轻睾丸炎，这可能为减少雄性动物急性睾丸炎的发生提供参考。
