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Low-Se Diet Can Affect Sperm Quality and Testicular Glutathione Peroxidase-4 activity in Rats

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Abstract

This study aimed to observe the influence of selenium (Se) deficiency on sperm quality and selenoprotein expression in rats. Four-week male Wista rats were randomly divided into three groups: Se-A, Se-L, and Se-D (respectively for Se- adequate, low, and deficient group). After 9 weeks, the rats were sacrificed by anesthesia, with the cauda epididymidis quickly fetched for sperm count, motility, and deformity. Meanwhile the blood, liver, brain, heart, and testis were collected for Se and biochemical analysis. It was found that the rats in Se-D had poor growth, while the Se concentrations in blood, liver, and heart for Se-D decreased significantly, compared with Se-A and Se-L (p < 0.01). But no significant difference was observed in testis and brain and also no statistical significance for sperm count. The sperm motility for Se-A (63.07%) was significantly higher than Se-L (53.91%) and Se-D (54.15%). Deformities were observed in both Se-L and Se-D. Both glutathione peroxidases (GPxs) and selenoprotein-P (SEPP1) levels in plasma and tissues of Se-D were significantly lower than those of Se-A and Se-L (p < 0.01). The SEPP1 levels in heart and brain of Se-L were lower than Se-A (p < 0.01). There was no statistical difference for GPx1 between Se-A and Se-L. The GPx4 level in testis of Se-L was lower than Se-A (p < 0.05). However, the SEPP1 in plasma, liver, testis, and the GPx3 level in plasma of Se-L were higher than those of Se-A (p < 0.05 or p < 0.01). Our results show that dietary Se deficiency could reduce GPx4 and SEPP1 expression in testis, which further influence sperm motility and may cause sperm deformity. Selenoprotein expression in some tissues of Se-L was higher than that of Se-A, but sperm quality and GPx4 expression in testis were not improved for Se-L. Low active pseudoselenoproteins might be synthesized in low-Se condition. The underlying mechanism needs to be further investigated.

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Acknowledgment

This work was supported by the youth science fund of National Institute of Nutrition and Health, Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (Grant No. NINH2018001).

The authors’ responsibilities were as follows

QW and SZ completed the experiments and wrote the paper; YQL and FH contributed to the detection of Se; LLS and CH participated in the animal experimental; WPM and JZC provided valuable advice on the writing; ZWH designed the experiments and revised the paper critically for important content; and all authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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  1. Qin Wang and Shuo Zhan contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Institute for Nutrition and Health, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, 100050, China

    Qin Wang, Shuo Zhan, Yiqun Liu, Feng Han, Lili Shi, Chao Han & Zhen-wu Huang

  2. Department of Genetics and Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599-7264, USA

    Weipeng Mu

  3. Departments of Medicine, Section of Nephrology, Selzman Institute for Kidney Health, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA

    Jizhong Cheng

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Wang, Q., Zhan, S., Liu, Y. et al. Low-Se Diet Can Affect Sperm Quality and Testicular Glutathione Peroxidase-4 activity in Rats. Biol Trace Elem Res 199, 3752–3758 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12011-020-02515-y

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