GSE126857
Dysregulation of lncRNAs and circRNAs in mouse testes after exposure to triptolide
Triptolide has been shown to exert various pharmacological effects on systemic autoimmune diseases and cancers. However, its severe toxicity, especially reproduction toxicity, prevents wide clinical use for those people with fertility needs. Noncoding RNAs including lncRNAs and cicrRNAs are regulatory molecules that mediate a wide variety of physiological activities, which are critical for spermatogenesis, and their dysregulation might lead to male infertility. However, whether they are involved in triptolide-induced reproduction toxicity is fully unknown. Here, after exposure of mice to triptolide for 35 day, the total RNAs were used to investigate lncRNAs/cicrRNAs/mRNAs expression profiles by strand-specific RNA sequencing at the transcriptome level to help determine any RNA-related mechanisms in triptolide-induced toxicity. The results showed that triptolide significantly decreased the testicular weight, damaged testis and sperm morphology, reduced sperm motility and density. Furthermore, there's a remarkable deformity in sperm head and tail in triptolide-exposed mice. At the transcriptome level, the triptolide-treated mice exhibited aberrant expression profiles for lncRNAs/cicrRNAs/mRNAs, many of them were dysregulated. Gene ontology and pathway analyses revealed that the functions of differentially expressed lncRNA targets, cicrRNAs cognate genes and mRNAs were closely linked with many processes involved in spermatogenesis. Additionally, many newly identified lncRNAs /cicrRNAs displayed inducible expression, suggesting that they might be good candidate markers for triptolide-induced male reproductive toxicity. This study gives us an insight into understanding the reproductive system toxicity of triptolide and reminds us to strengthen the research on increasing efficacy and decreasing toxicity of triptolide. Overall design: LncRNA profiles of testis were generated by stranded-specific RNA-seq, using Illumina HiSeq™ X Ten platform with PE150.