Metabolomics profiling of seminal plasma in obesity-induced asthenozoospermia.

BACKGROUND: Asthenozoospermia is one of the essential causes of male infertility, and its incidence is significantly higher in obese men. Due to its complex etiology and unknown pathomechanism, the diagnosis and treatment of obesity-induced asthenozoospermia is a prevalent problem in reproductive medicine. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to explore major differential metabolites and metabolic pathways in seminal plasma and pathological mechanisms for obesity-induced asthenozoospermia. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We performed non-target metabolomic studies on the seminal plasma of healthy men with normal semen parameters (HN group, n = 20), obese men with normal semen parameters (ON group, n = 20), and men with obesity-induced asthenozoospermia (OA group, n = 20) based on gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Metabolic profilings and related pathway analyses were conducted to discriminate differential metabolites and metabolic pathways. RESULTS: A total of 20 differential metabolites including fructose, succinic acid, aconitic acid, methylmaleic acid, glucopyranose, serine, valine, leucine, phenylalanine, glycine, glutamic acid, alanine, proline and threonine were identified in HN group and ON group; 24 differential metabolites including glucose, fructose, pyruvic acid, citric acid, succinic acid, aconitic acid, glucopyranose, glutamic acid, valine, leucine, glycine, phenylalanine, lysine, citrulline, proline and alanine were produced in OA group and ON group; and 28 differential metabolites including glucose, fructose, citric acid, succinic acid, glucopyranose, valine, glycine, serine, leucine, phenylalanine, alanine, threonine, proline, glutamic acid, citrulline, lysine and tyrosine were produced in OA group and HN group. In addition, abnormal energy metabolism including carbohydrate metabolism (TCA cycle, glycolysis/gluconeogenesis, and pyruvate metabolism) and amino acid metabolism (phenylalanine, tyrosine, and tryptophan biosynthesis, D-glutamine and D-glutamate metabolism; phenylalanine metabolism, etc.) were found in ON group and OA group. CONCLUSION: Obesity could affect the metabolite composition in seminal plasma and abnormal energy metabolism in seminal plasma mainly including carbohydrate metabolism and amino acid metabolism were closely related to obesity-induced asthenozoospermia.

Nobiletin Inhibits Hypoxia-Induced Placental Damage via Modulating P53 Signaling Pathway.

In this study, we aimed to evaluate the effect of Nobiletin (NOB) on the placenta of Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats that had undergone reduced uterine perfusion pressure (RUPP) surgery and to evaluate the safety of NOB intervention during pregnancy. The results showed that NOB alleviated placental hypoxia, attenuated placental cell apoptosis, and inhibited placental damage in RUPP rats. No side effect of NOB intervention during pregnancy was observed. BeWo cell lines with P53 knockdown were then constructed using lentiviral transfection, and the P53 signaling pathway was found to be essential for NOB to reduce hypoxia-induced apoptosis of the BeWo cell lines. In summary, NOB attenuated hypoxia-induced placental damage by regulating the P53 signaling pathway, and those findings may contribute some insights into the role of NOB in placental development and the prevention of placental-related diseases.

Potential role of hydrogen sulfide in central nervous system tumors: a narrative review.

Central nervous system tumors are classified as diseases of special clinical significance with high disability and high mortality. In addition to cerebrovascular diseases and craniocerebral injuries, tumors are the most common diseases of the central nervous system. Hydrogen sulfide, the third endogenous gas signaling molecule discovered in humans besides nitric oxide and carbon monoxide, plays an important role in the pathophysiology of human diseases. It is reported that hydrogen sulfide not only exerts a wide range of biological effects, but also develops a certain relationship with tumor development and neovascularization. A variety of studies have shown that hydrogen sulfide acts as a vasodilator and angiogenetic factor to facilitate growth, proliferation, migration and invasion of cancer cells. In this review, the pathological mechanisms and the effect of hydrogen sulfide on the central nervous system tumors are introduced.

Recent advances in the protective role of hydrogen sulfide in myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury: a narrative review.

Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is recognized to be a novel mediator after carbon monoxide and nitric oxide in the organism. It can be produced in various mammalian tissues and exert many physiological effects in many systems including the cardiovascular system. A great amount of recent studies have demonstrated that endogenous H2S and exogenous H2S-releasing compounds (such as NaHS, Na2S, and GYY4137) provide protection in many cardiovascular diseases, such as ischemia/reperfusion injury, heart failure, cardiac hypertrophy, and atherosclerosis. In recent years, many mechanisms have been proposed and verified the protective role exhibited by H2S against myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury, and this review is to demonstrate the protective role of exogenous and endogenous H2S on myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury.

Comparative studies of the composition of bacterial microbiota associated with the ruminal content, ruminal epithelium and in the faeces of lactating dairy cows.

The objective of this research was to compare the composition of bacterial microbiota associated with the ruminal content (RC), ruminal epithelium (RE) and faeces of Holstein dairy cows. The RC, RE and faecal samples were collected from six Holstein dairy cows when the animals were slaughtered. Community compositions of bacterial 16S rRNA genes from RC, RE and faeces were determined using a MiSeq sequencing platform with bacterial-targeting universal primers 338F and 806R. UniFrac analysis revealed that the bacterial communities of RC, RE and faeces were clearly separated from each other. Statistically significant dissimilarities were observed between RC and faeces (P = 0.002), between RC and RE (P = 0.003), and between RE and faeces (P = 0.001). A assignment of sequences to taxa showed that the abundance of the predominant phyla Bacteroidetes was lower in RE than in RC, while a significant higher (P < 0.01) abundance of Proteobacteria was present in RE than in RC. When compared with the RC, the abundance of Firmicutes and Verrucomicrobia was higher in faeces, and RC contained a greater abundance of Bacteroidetes and Tenericutes. A higher proportions of Butyrivibrio and Campylobacter dominated RE as compared to RC. The faecal microbiota was less diverse than RC and dominated by genera Turicibacter and Clostridium. In general, these findings clearly demonstrated the striking compositional differences among RC, RE and faeces, indicating that bacterial communities are specific and adapted to the harbouring environment.