Wen Yixian, Cai Jing, Zhang Huilian, Li Yi, Yu Manyao, Liu Jinyi, Han Fei
School of Public Health, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing 400016, China.
Joint International Research Laboratory of Reproduction and Development of the Ministry of Education, Chongqing 400016, China.
Biomedicines. 2024 Aug 1;12(8):1714. doi: 10.3390/biomedicines12081714.
Plastic-based products are ubiquitous due to their tremendous utility in our daily lives. Nanoplastic (NP) and microplastic (MP) pollution has become a severe threat to the planet and is a growing concern. It has been widely reported that polystyrene (PS) MPs are severely toxic to the male reproduction system, with effects including decreased sperm parameters, impaired spermatogenesis, and damaged testicular structures. However, the molecular mechanisms for impaired spermatogenesis remain poorly understood.
C57BL/6 male mice were treated with PS-NPs (80 nm) and PS-MPs (5 μm) by oral gavage every day for 60 days. A series of morphological analyses were completed to explore the influence of PS-NP and PS-MP exposure on the testes. Compared to other cell types in the seminiferous tubule, PS-NP and PS-MP exposure can lead to decreased spermatocytes. Then, more refined molecular typing was further performed based on gene expression profiles to better understand the common and specific molecular characteristics after exposure to PS-NPs and PS-MPs.
There were 1794 common DEGs across the PS-NP groups at three different doses and 1433 common DEGs across the PS-MP groups at three different doses. GO and KEGG analyses of the common DEGs in the PS-NP and PS-MP groups were performed to enrich the common and specific functional progress and signaling pathways, including 349 co-enriched GO entries and 13 co-enriched pathways. Moreover, 348 GO entries and 33 pathways were specifically enriched in the PS-NP group, while 526 GO entries and 15 pathways were specifically enriched in the PS-MPs group.
PS-NPs were predominantly involved in regulating retinoic acid metabolism, whereas PS-MPs primarily influenced pyruvate metabolism and thyroid hormone metabolism. Our results highlight the different molecular mechanisms of PS-NPs and PS-MPs in the impairment of spermatogenesis in male mammals for the first time, providing valuable insights into the precise mechanisms of PS-NPs and PS-MPs in male reproduction.
基于塑料的产品因其在我们日常生活中的巨大实用性而无处不在。纳米塑料（NP）和微塑料（MP）污染已成为对地球的严重威胁，且日益受到关注。已有广泛报道称，聚苯乙烯（PS）微塑料对雄性生殖系统具有严重毒性，其影响包括精子参数下降、精子发生受损以及睾丸结构受损。然而，精子发生受损的分子机制仍知之甚少。
C57BL/6雄性小鼠每天经口灌胃给予PS - NPs（80纳米）和PS - MPs（5微米），持续60天。完成了一系列形态学分析，以探究PS - NP和PS - MP暴露对睾丸的影响。与生精小管中的其他细胞类型相比，PS - NP和PS - MP暴露可导致精母细胞减少。然后，基于基因表达谱进一步进行更精细的分子分型，以更好地了解暴露于PS - NPs和PS - MPs后的共同和特定分子特征。
在三种不同剂量的PS - NP组中共有1794个共同差异表达基因（DEGs），在三种不同剂量的PS - MP组中共有1433个共同DEGs。对PS - NP和PS - MP组中的共同DEGs进行了基因本体（GO）和京都基因与基因组百科全书（KEGG）分析，以富集共同和特定的功能进程及信号通路，包括349个共同富集的GO条目和13条共同富集的通路。此外，PS - NP组中特异性富集了348个GO条目和33条通路，而PS - MPs组中特异性富集了526个GO条目和15条通路。
PS - NPs主要参与调节视黄酸代谢，而PS - MPs主要影响丙酮酸代谢和甲状腺激素代谢。我们的结果首次突出了PS - NPs和PS - MPs在雄性哺乳动物精子发生受损中的不同分子机制，为PS - NPs和PS - MPs在雄性生殖中的精确机制提供了有价值的见解。
