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Molecular Regulatory Mechanism of Nano-Se Against Copper-Induced Spermatogenesis Disorder

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Abstract

Selenium nanoparticle (Nano-Se) is a new type of selenium supplement, which can improve the deficiency of traditional selenium supplements and maintain its physiological activity. Due to industrial pollution and irrational use in agriculture, Cu overexposure often occurs in animals and humans. In this study, Nano-Se alleviated CuSO4-induced testicular Cu accumulation, serum testosterone level decrease, testicular structural damage, and decrease in sperm quality. Meanwhile, Nano-Se reduced the ROS content in mice testis and enhanced the activities of T-AOC, GSH, SOD, and CAT compared with CuSO4 group. Furthermore, Nano-Se alleviated CuSO4-induced apoptosis by increasing the protein expression of Cleaved-Caspase-3, Cleaved-Caspase-9, Cleaved-Caspase-12, and Bax/Bcl-2 compared with CuSO4 group. At the same time, Nano-Se reversed CuSO4-induced increase of γ-H2AX protein expression in mice testis. In conclusion, this study confirmed that Nano-Se could alleviate oxidative stress, apoptosis, and DNA damage in the testis of mice with Cu excess, thereby protecting the spermatogenesis disorder induced by Cu.

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Data Availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable.

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Funding

This work was supported by the national key research and development project (2022YFD1601600), China Agriculture Research System of MOF and MARA (Beef Cattle/Yak, CARS-37), and Innovative Team for Beef Cattle Low-Carbon Production (2022–2024).

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Author notes

  1. Yujuan Ouyang and Yanbing Lou contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Veterinary Medicine, Sichuan Agricultural University, Wenjiang, Chengdu, 611130, Sichuan, China

    Yujuan Ouyang, Yanbing Lou, Yanqiu Zhu, Yihan Wang, Song Zhu, Lin Jing, Tingting Yang, Hengmin Cui, Huidan Deng, Zhicai Zuo, Jing Fang & Hongrui Guo

  2. Key Laboratory of Animal Diseases and Environmental Hazards of Sichuan Province, Sichuan Agriculture University, Wenjiang, Chengdu, 611130, China

    Hengmin Cui, Huidan Deng, Zhicai Zuo, Jing Fang & Hongrui Guo

Authors
  1. Yujuan Ouyang
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  2. Yanbing Lou
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Contributions

Yujuan Ouyang: methodology, investigation, formal analysis, and writing—original draft. Yanbing Lou: methodology, investigation, formal analysis, and writing—original draft. Yanqiu Zhu: methodology, investigation, formal analysis, and writing—original draft. Yihan Wang: methodology. Song Zhu: methodology. Lin Jing: methodology. Tingting Yang: methodology. Hengmin Cui: methodology. Huidan Deng: methodology. Zhicai Zuo: methodology. Jing Fang: writing—review and editing and project administration. Hongrui Guo: conceptualization, experiment design, writing—review and editing, and funding acquisition.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hongrui Guo.

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All procedures related to animals were conducted in accordance with the guidelines of the Animal Care and the Ethics Committee of Sichuan Agricultural University (Approval No: 2012–024, Chengdu, China).

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Ouyang, Y., Lou, Y., Zhu, Y. et al. Molecular Regulatory Mechanism of Nano-Se Against Copper-Induced Spermatogenesis Disorder. Biol Trace Elem Res (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12011-024-04153-0

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