title: A potential tool for diagnosis of male infertility: Plasma metabolomics based on GC-MS.
abstract: Male infertility has become an important public health problem worldwide. Nowadays the diagnosis of male infertility frequently depends on the results of semen quality or requires more invasive surgical intervention. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a novel approach for early diagnosis of male infertility. According to the presence or absence of normal sexual function, the male infertility is classified into two phenotypes, erectile dysfunction (ED) and semen abnormalities (SA). The aim of this study was to investigate the GC-MS plasma profiles of infertile male having erectile dysfunction (ED) and having semen abnormalities (SA) and discover the potential biomarkers. The plasma samples from healthy controls (HC) (n=61) and infertility patients with ED (n=26) or with SA (n=44) were analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) for discrimination and screening potential biomarkers. The partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) was performed on GC-MS dataset. The results showed that HC could be discriminated from infertile cases having SA (AUC=86.96%, sensitivity=78.69%, specificity=84.09%, accuracy=80.95%) and infertile cases having ED (AUC=94.33%, sensitivity=80.33%, specificity=100%, accuracy=87.36%). Some potential biomarkers were successfully discovered by two commonly used variable selection methods, variable importance on projection (VIP) and original coefficients of PLS-DA (β). 1,5-Anhydro-sorbitol and α-hydroxyisovaleric acid were identified as the potential biomarkers for distinguishing HC from the male infertility patients. Meanwhile, lactate, glutamate and cholesterol were the found to be the important variables to distinguish between patients with erectile dysfunction from those with semen abnormalities. The plasma metabolomics may be developed as a novel approach for fast, noninvasive, and acceptable diagnosis and characterization of male infertility.
authors.affiliation: Research Center of Modernization of Chinese Medicines, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China.
authors.forename: Xinyi
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Department of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Male department of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China.
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Research Center of Modernization of Chinese Medicines, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China.
authors.forename: Yonghuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yun
authors.affiliation: Department of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Male department of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China.
authors.forename: Zian
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Xia
authors.affiliation: Research Center of Modernization of Chinese Medicines, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China. Electronic address: Hongmeilu@csu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Hongmei
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: Department of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Male department of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China. Electronic address: luojk4314131@163.com.
authors.forename: Jiekun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.affiliation: Research Center of Modernization of Chinese Medicines, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China.
authors.forename: Yizeng
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liang
mesh_terms: D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood*; D001774:Blood Chemical Analysis; D008401:Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry; D006801:Humans; D007248:Infertility, Male / Q000097:blood*; D008297:Male; D055432:Metabolomics / Q000379:methods*; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D010949:Plasma / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers
keywords: Biomarker; GC–MS; Male infertility; PLS-DA; Plasma profiling