Acta Veterinaria et Zootechnica Sinica ›› 2024, Vol. 55 ›› Issue (8): 3516-3525.doi: 10.11843/j.issn.0366-6964.2024.08.024

• Animal Biotechnology and Reproduction • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Bisphenol A Inhibits Testosterone Synthesis in TM3 Cells by Upregulating Apoa1 Gene Expression

Tong ZHAO1(), Wenzhe YANG1, Feilong PAN1, Shuchen ZHAO1,2, Kexiang LIU1,2, Zhanjun LÜ1,2, Lijia ZHAO1,2,*()   

  1. 1. College of Animal Medicine, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin 150030, China
    2. Key Laboratory of the Provincial Education Department of Heilongjiang for Common Animal Disease Prevention and Treatment, Harbin 150030, China
  • Received:2023-11-03 Online:2024-08-23 Published:2024-08-28
  • Contact: Lijia ZHAO E-mail:ZT215926@163.com;ljzhao@neau.edu.cn

Abstract:

The aim of the study was to investigate whether apolipoprotein A1 (apolipoprotein A1, Apoa1) mediates the reduction of testosterone synthesis in mouse Leydig cells line (TM3) induced by bisphenol A (BPA) exposure from the perspective of lipid metabolism. TM3 cells were randomly divided into 7 groups with different concentrations (0, 5, 10, 20, 40, 60, and 80 μmol·L-1), and 0 μmol·L-1 BPA was the control group (CON); After 24 h of treatment with the different concentrations, cell viability was detected using theby CCK-8 method to determine the optimal dose of BPA. Testosterone (testosterone, T) synthesiscontent in TM3 cell supernatant was detected by ELISA; mRNA expression levels of lipid metabolism-related genes Apoa1, Apoa2 (apolipoprotein A2) and Apoc3 (apolipoprotein C3) genes were measured in TM3 cells usingby RT-qPCR. APOA1 protein expression level was detected usingby Western blot and immunofluorescence method. Intracellular lipid droplet accumulation was observed usingby oil red O staining. The results showed that 20 μmol·L-1 BPA treatment for 24 h had no significant effect on the viability of TM3 cells; However, an extremely significant inhibition of TM3 cell viability was observed followingin treatment with 40 μmol·L-1 BPA for 24 h (P < 0.01); In addition, after 20 μmol·L-1 BPA treatment on TM3 cells for 24 h, the testosterone content in the culture supernatant was extremely significantly lower than that in the CON group (P < 0.01), the mRNA expression level and protein expression of Apoa1 gene were extremely significantly elevated (P < 0.001), but there was no significant change in the mRNA expression level of Apoa2 andor Apoc3 genes; The accumulation of lipid droplets in TM3 cells was extremely significantly reduced by 20 μmol·L-1 BPA treatment for 24 h compared with the CON group (P < 0.000 1). In conclusion, BPA can reduce the lipid droplets accumulation in TM3 cells by up-regulating Apoa1 expression levels, enhancing reverse cholesterol transport (Reverse cholesterol transport, RCT), leading to a decrease in testosterone synthesis in TM3 cells.

Key words: bisphenol A(BPA), apolipoprotein A1(Apoa1), mouse Leydig cells(TM3), testosterone(T)

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