Department of Genetics, Faculty of Basic Sciences and Advanced Technologies in Biology, University of Science and Culture, Tehran, Iran.
Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, School of Biology, College of Science University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.
Theriogenology. 2025 Jan 1;231:1-10. doi: 10.1016/j.theriogenology.2024.09.033. Epub 2024 Oct 3.
Numerous studies have shown that an improper diet in parents has a negative impact on offspring's health. Furthermore, the negative effects of trans fatty acids (TFA) in maternal diets on fertility and health and their impact on future generations have been documented. However, there is limited research on the negative effects of TFA in paternal diets on male children. The current work used qRT-PCR to investigate the effects of trans fatty acids and vitamin E in the paternal diet on the expression pattern of androgen signaling pathway genes such as STAR, CYP11a1, HSD3B, SRD5a2, and SCARB1 in offspring testes. In this experiment, parental rats were randomly separated into four groups, each with ten father rats, and were fed for eight weeks (60 days) as follows. 1: Standard diet group plus liquid sunflower oil (control). 2: Standard diet group containing trans fatty acids (CTH). 3: The regular diet group received 2.5 times the recommended quantity of vitamin E supplement. 4: Standard diet group with vitamin E and trans fatty acid supplementation (ETH). The testis tissue samples from 35 offspring were then used. Following RNA extraction from tissues and cDNA synthesis, quantitative real-time PCR was used to evaluate the expression levels of androgen signaling pathway genes such as STAR, CYP11A1, HSD3B, SCARB1, and SRD5A2. Our findings showed that the expression of CYP11A1 was considerably reduced in the progeny of paternal rats given ETH compared to the CTH group. The expression levels of the STAR gene were significantly lower in the progeny of paternal rats administered TFA, ETH, and vitamin E compared to the controls. Although the CTH group had lower SCARB1 expression than the other groups, the difference was not statistically significant. Paternal vitamin E consumption substantially affected SRD5A2 expression when compared to offspring of paternal rats fed vitamin E + trans fatty acid or those fed a conventional diet containing trans fatty acid. Furthermore, the vitamin E group showed a statistically significant increase in HSD3B expression compared to the other groups. Bioinformatics analyses, such as protein-protein interaction networks and gene ontology term enrichment, revealed that these genes play roles in lipid biosynthesis, hormone metabolism, male sex differentiation, reproductive development, and steroid biosynthesis. Our data indicate that paternal trans fatty acid consumption influences the expression of particular androgen signaling pathway genes in offspring testis, with vitamin E potentially mitigating some of these effects.
大量研究表明，父母不当的饮食会对后代的健康产生负面影响。此外，已经有文献记录了母体饮食中的反式脂肪酸（TFA）对生育和健康的负面影响及其对后代的影响。然而，关于父体饮食中的 TFA 对男童的负面影响的研究有限。目前的工作使用 qRT-PCR 研究了父体饮食中的反式脂肪酸和维生素 E 对后代睾丸中雄激素信号通路基因（如 STAR、CYP11a1、HSD3B、SRD5a2 和 SCARB1）表达模式的影响。在这项实验中，将亲代大鼠随机分为四组，每组 10 只雄鼠，分别用以下四种饮食喂养 8 周（60 天）：1. 标准饮食组加液体葵花籽油（对照）。2. 标准饮食组含反式脂肪酸（CTH）。3. 常规饮食组接受推荐量 2.5 倍的维生素 E 补充剂。4. 标准饮食组加维生素 E 和反式脂肪酸补充剂（ETH）。然后使用 35 只后代的睾丸组织样本。从组织中提取 RNA 并合成 cDNA 后，使用定量实时 PCR 评估雄激素信号通路基因（如 STAR、CYP11A1、HSD3B、SCARB1 和 SRD5A2）的表达水平。我们的研究结果表明，与 CTH 组相比，给予 ETH 的父代大鼠后代的 CYP11A1 表达明显降低。与对照组相比，TFA、ETH 和维生素 E 处理的父代大鼠的后代 STAR 基因的表达水平显著降低。虽然 CTH 组的 SCARB1 表达低于其他组，但差异无统计学意义。与给予常规饮食含 TFA 或给予 TFA 和维生素 E 的父代大鼠的后代相比，父代维生素 E 摄入对 SRD5A2 表达有显著影响。此外，维生素 E 组的 HSD3B 表达与其他组相比有统计学意义上的增加。蛋白质-蛋白质相互作用网络和基因本体术语富集等生物信息学分析表明，这些基因在脂质生物合成、激素代谢、雄性性别分化、生殖发育和类固醇生物合成中发挥作用。我们的数据表明，父代 TFA 摄入会影响后代睾丸中特定雄激素信号通路基因的表达，而维生素 E 可能会减轻其中一些影响。
