ACTA VETERINARIA ET ZOOTECHNICA SINICA ›› 2019, Vol. 50 ›› Issue (5): 1099-1105.doi: 10.11843/j.issn.0366-6964.2019.05.021

• CLINICAL VETERINARY MEDICINE • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Acute Exposure of Bacterial Lipopolysaccharide Induces Testicular Injury in Mice through Inflammatory Response

ZHANG Feng1,2, CHEN Zhilong1, YI Siliang1, XU Luyao1, FANG Juan1, LI Chen1, FU Shengcai2*, YANG Qing1*   

  1. 1. College of Veterinary Medicine, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha 410128, China;
    2. Hunan Institute of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine, Changsha 410131, China
  • Received:2018-12-07 Online:2019-05-23 Published:2019-05-23

Abstract:

The present study was conducted to investigate the effects of acute exposure to bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) on testis and its function in mice. Healthy male mice were randomly divided into 4 groups:Control group, 1.25 mg·kg-1 LPS group, 2.5 mg·kg-1 LPS group and 5.0 mg·kg-1 LPS. The control group was intraperitoneally injected with 200 μL saline, while the other three groups were injected the same volume saline containing different doses of LPS and treated for 12 hours. Testes were collected to check the pathological changes after staining; body weight, testicular and epididymal indexes were recorded and the related sperm quality indexes were determined; testosterone (T) level in serum was measured by ELISA; Transcription of inflammatory genes (TNF-α, IL-6, GAS6 and TGF-β1) were detected by RT-qPCR. The results showed that LPS acute exposure reduced the body weight of mice in a dose-dependent manner (P<0.05 or P<0.01), significantly decreased testicular index (P<0.05 or P<0.01), sperm density (P<0.01) and sperm motility (P<0.05 or P<0.01), and increased the rate of sperm malformation (P<0.05 or P<0.01). Meanwhile, LPS exposure resulted in testicular pathological changes to varying degrees, such as spermatogenic cell apoptosis, enlargement of seminiferous duct cavity and less sperms, and significantly reduced the levels of testosterone (T) in serum. In addition, LPS also increased the transcription of pro-inflammatory factors (TNF-α and IL-6) and inhibited anti-inflammatory factors (GAS6 and TGF-β1) in a dose-dependent manner. These results indicated that acute exposure to bacterial LPS impairs testicular tissue and leads to spermatogenesis disorder via destroying the balance of inflammatory factors in the body.

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