Repair mechanism of Yishen Tongluo formula on mouse sperm DNA fragmentation caused by polystyrene microplastics.

CONTEXT: Plastics can break down into millions of microplastic (MPs, < 5 mm) particles in the soil and ocean. These MPs can then affect the function of the reproductive system. There is currently no effective solution to this problem aside from traditional Chinese medicine. We have previously used Yishen Tongluo formula (YSTL) to treat sperm DNA damage caused by some toxic substances. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the mechanism underlying the repair of mouse sperm DNA fragmentation caused by polystyrene microplastics by YSTL. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An animal model of polystyrene microplastic (PS-MP)-induced sperm DNA damage was replicated by gavage of SPF ICR (CD1) mice PS-MPs at 1 mg/d and treated with YSTL at 11.89, 23.78 and 47.56 g/kg, respectively, for 60 days. The Sperm DNA fragmentation index (DFI) of each group was detected and compared. The target genes of YSTL identified by transcriptomic and proteomic analyses were validated by qRT-PCR and western blotting. RESULTS: The DFI of the PS group (20.66%) was significantly higher than that of the control group (4.23%). The medium and high doses of the YSTL group (12.8% and 11.31%) exhibited a significant repairing effect. The most enriched pathway was PI3K/Akt. TBL1X, SPARC, hnRNP0, Map7D1, Eps8 and Mrpl27 were screened and SPARC was validated. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: The precise mechanism by which YSTL inhibits PD-MPs DNA damage may be associated with the PI3K/Akt pathway and SPARC. It provides a new direction for using traditional Chinese medicine to prevent and repair reproductive system injury caused by MPs.

Microplastics May Be a Significant Cause of Male Infertility.

Due to the problematic degradation properties of plastics, the decomposition of plastic results in the formation of numerous microplastics (MPs), less than 5 mm in diameter. These MPs enter the soil and the ocean, eventually passing through the air, water, or food chain back to the human body and harming human health. In the last 80 years, male semen analysis parameters have shown a significant decline for unknown reasons, speculated to be caused by pollutants. No studies examined the relationship between human MP exposure and male infertility. In this article, we reviewed the relevant animal experimental research literature in recent years and calculated that the minimum human equivalent dose of MPs leading to abnormal male semen quality is 0.016 mg/kg/d. The literature comparison found that MP exposure in Japan and South Korea was close to this value. These results suggest that MPs can affect male semen quality and that MPs may significantly impact male fertility.

Synthesis of nitrogen-rich magnetic hypercrosslinked polymer as robust adsorbent for the detection of neonicotinoids in honey, tomatoes, lettuce and Chinese cabbage.

In this study, a novel nitrogen-rich magnetic hypercrosslinked polymer (Fe3O4@Ph-HCP) was fabricated via a facile one-pot reaction of 1,3,5-triphenylbenzene, 2,4-dichloropyrimidine and phenyl-functionalized magnetic Fe3O4 nanoparticles. The Fe3O4@Ph-HCP possessed high specific surface, abundant nanopores and good stability. Especially, Fe3O4@Ph-HCP exhibited excellent adsorption capability with fast adsorption rate to neonicotinoid insecticides. It was applied as a superior magnetic adsorbent for rapid enrichment and isolation of four neonicotinoid insecticides (thiamethoxam, imidacloprid, acetamiprid and thiacloprid) from honey, tomato, lettuce and Chinese cabbage samples prior to high performance liquid chromatography-diode array detection. Under the optimized conditions, the good linearity was obtained in the range of 1-1000 ng g-1 for honey, tomato, lettuce and Chinese cabbage samples, and the detection limits (S/N = 3) were 0.30-0.67 ng g-1 for honey, 1-1.5 ng g-1 for tomato, lettuce and Chinese cabbage. The spiked recoveries were 80.1-111%, and relative standard deviations were less than 10.0%. These results demonstrate that the developed method can be used as a good alternative method for sensitive determination of neonicotinoid insecticides in complex samples.