Guo Xinyu, Yin Yupeng, Guo Susu, Chen Xiaoyan, Xie Suyan, Chen Shiqin, Huang Yan
Center of Reproductive Medicine, The General Hospital of Southern Theater Command, Guangzhou, China.
The First Clinical Medical College, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China.
FEBS Open Bio. 2025 Jun;15(6):963-971. doi: 10.1002/2211-5463.70010. Epub 2025 Mar 5.
Heat stress can cause testicular damage and affect male fertility. The gasotransmitter hydrogen sulfide (HS) is involved in various physiological and pathophysiological processes, with antioxidant and anti-inflammation effects. The aim of this study was to investigate whether HS could reduce the testicular damage caused by heat stress. In this study, we constructed a rat heat-stress model and treated it with HS. Histopathology, high-throughput sequencing, bioinformatics analysis and molecular biology methods were used to investigate whether HS donor NaHS could alleviate heat stress-induced testicular injury and to explore the underlying mode of action of HS. Heat stress reduced testis index, sperm quality, sex hormone levels and disturbed testicular structures. High-throughput transcriptome sequencing and Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analyses showed that genes involved in inflammation were upregulated in the heat stress group compared to the control group. HS treatment increased testis index, sperm quality and attenuated pathological alternation and hormone disorder in rats exposed to heat stress. Furthermore, HS administration reversed increased inflammatory factors tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin-1β and interleukin-6, and resulted in a significant decrease in malondialdehyde levels and in increased activity of catalase and ratio of reduced/oxidized glutathione compared to the heat stress group. This study suggests that HS donor NaHS can effectively restore testicular damage caused by heat stress in rats by inhibiting inflammation and oxidative stress.
热应激可导致睾丸损伤并影响男性生育能力。气体信号分子硫化氢（HS）参与多种生理和病理生理过程，具有抗氧化和抗炎作用。本研究旨在探讨HS是否能减轻热应激引起的睾丸损伤。在本研究中，我们构建了大鼠热应激模型并用HS进行处理。采用组织病理学、高通量测序、生物信息学分析和分子生物学方法，研究HS供体硫氢化钠（NaHS）是否能减轻热应激诱导的睾丸损伤，并探索HS的潜在作用模式。热应激降低了睾丸指数、精子质量、性激素水平并扰乱了睾丸结构。高通量转录组测序和基因本体（GO）富集分析表明，与对照组相比，热应激组中参与炎症反应的基因上调。HS处理提高了热应激大鼠的睾丸指数和精子质量，减轻了病理改变和激素紊乱。此外，与热应激组相比，给予HS可使炎症因子肿瘤坏死因子-α、白细胞介素-1β和白细胞介素-6水平降低，丙二醛水平显著下降，过氧化氢酶活性增加，还原型/氧化型谷胱甘肽比值升高。本研究表明，HS供体NaHS可通过抑制炎症和氧化应激有效恢复大鼠热应激所致的睾丸损伤。
