title: The Protective Effect of Selenium on Chronic Zearalenone-Induced Reproductive System Damage in Male Mice.
abstract: This study aims to explore the protective effect of selenium (Se) on chronic zearalenone (ZEN)-induced reproductive system damage in male mice and the possible protective molecular mechanism against this. The chronic ZEN-induced injury mouse model was established with the continuous intragastric administration of 40 mg/kg body mass (B.M.) ZEN for 28 days. Then, interventions with different doses (0.1, 0.2, and 0.4 mg/kg B.M.) of Se were conducted on mice to analyse the changes in organ indexes of epididymis and testis, antioxidant capability of testis, serum level of testosterone, sperm concentration and motility parameters, and the expression levels of apoptosis-associated genes and blood testis barrier- (BTB) related genes. Our results showed that Se could greatly improve the ZEN-induced decrease of epididymis indexes and testis indexes. Results also showed that the decrease in sperm concentration, sperm normality rate, and sperm motility parameters, including percentage of motile sperm (motile), tropism percentage (progressive) and sperm average path velocity (VAP), caused by ZEN were elevated upon administration of the higher dose (0.4 mg/kg) and intermediate dose (0.2 mg/kg) of Se. Selenium also significantly reduced the content of malondialdehyde (MDA) but enhanced the activities of antioxidant enzymes superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) in the testis tissue. Further research demonstrated that ZEN increased the level of mRNA expression ofBCL2-associated X protein(Bax) andcaspase 3(Casp3), decreased the level of mRNA expression ofB cell leukemia/lymphoma 2(Bcl2),vimentin(Vim) andcadherin 2(Cdh2), whereas the co-administration of Se reversed these gene expression levels. Our results indicated that high levels of Se could protect against reproductive system damage in male mice caused by ZEN and the mechanism might such be that Se improved mice antioxidant ability, inhibited reproductive cell apoptosis, and increased the decrease of BTB integrity-related genes caused by ZEN.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Zoonosis of Liaoning Province, College of Animal Science & Veterinary Medicine, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang 110866, China. longjlau@126.com.|Institute of Plant Immunology, College of Plant Protection College, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang 110866, China. longjlau@126.com.
authors.forename: Miao
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Long
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Zoonosis of Liaoning Province, College of Animal Science & Veterinary Medicine, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang 110866, China. yangshuhua0001@126.com.
authors.forename: Shuhua
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Zoonosis of Liaoning Province, College of Animal Science & Veterinary Medicine, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang 110866, China. lm19781013@163.com.
authors.forename: Yuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Zoonosis of Liaoning Province, College of Animal Science & Veterinary Medicine, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang 110866, China. lipeng79625@163.com.
authors.forename: Peng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Zoonosis of Liaoning Province, College of Animal Science & Veterinary Medicine, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang 110866, China. sihuo12345@sohu.com.
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Zoonosis of Liaoning Province, College of Animal Science & Veterinary Medicine, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang 110866, China. DongS_FOCUS@163.com.
authors.forename: Shuang
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Zoonosis of Liaoning Province, College of Animal Science & Veterinary Medicine, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang 110866, China. xinliang@syau.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Xinliang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Zoonosis of Liaoning Province, College of Animal Science & Veterinary Medicine, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang 110866, China. guoniuniu163@163.com.
authors.forename: Jiayi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Zoonosis of Liaoning Province, College of Animal Science & Veterinary Medicine, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang 110866, China. hejianbin69@163.com.
authors.forename: Jianbin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: Institute of Plant Immunology, College of Plant Protection College, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang 110866, China. gaozenggui@sina.com.
authors.forename: Zenggui
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, Jilin Agricultural University, Changchun 130118, China. junwang2004@126.com.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000975:Antioxidants / Q000494:pharmacology*; D005978:Glutathione / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D018384:Oxidative Stress / Q000187:drug effects*; D020011:Protective Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D012643:Selenium / Q000494:pharmacology*; D013081:Sperm Motility / Q000187:drug effects; D013091:Spermatogenesis / Q000187:drug effects*; D013737:Testis / Q000187:drug effects / Q000473:pathology*; D013739:Testosterone / Q000097:blood; D015025:Zearalenone / Q000633:toxicity*
chemical_list: D000975:Antioxidants; D020011:Protective Agents; D013739:Testosterone; D015025:Zearalenone; D005978:Glutathione; D012643:Selenium
keywords: male mice; reproductive; selenium; testis; zearalenone