N-acetylcysteine rescues meiotic arrest during spermatogenesis in mice exposed to BDE-209.

Yu Wei, Wenfeng Geng, Taifa Zhang, Huan He, Jinxia Zhai

Environmental science and pollution research international 2023 Apr

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Deca-bromodiphenyl ethers (BDE-209) has been widely used in electronic devices and textiles as additives to flame retardants. Growing evidence showed that BDE-209 exposure leads to poorer sperm quality and male reproductive dysfunction. However, the underlying mechanisms of BDE-209 exposure caused a decline in sperm quality remains unclear. This study aimed to evaluate the protective effects of N-acetylcysteine (NAC) on meiotic arrest in spermatocytes and decreased sperm quality in BDE-209-exposed mice. In the study, mice were treated with NAC (150 mg/kg BW) 2 h before administrated with BDE-209 (80 mg/kg BW) for 2 weeks. For the in vitro studies, spermatocyte cell line GC-2spd cells were pretreated with NAC (5 mM) 2 h before treated with BDE-209 (50 μM) for 24 h. We found that pretreatment with NAC attenuated the oxidative stress status induced by BDE-209 in vivo and in vitro. Moreover, pretreatment with NAC rescued the testicular histology impairment and decreased the testicular organ coefficient in BDE-209-exposed mice. In addition, NAC supplement partially promoted meiotic prophase and improved sperm quality in BDE-209-exposed mice. Furthermore, NAC pretreatment effectively improved DNA damage repair by recovering DMC1, RAD51, and MLH1. In conclusion, BDE-209 caused spermatogenesis dysfunction related to the meiotic arrest medicated by oxidative stress, decreasing sperm quality. © 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.

Citation

Yu Wei, Wenfeng Geng, Taifa Zhang, Huan He, Jinxia Zhai. N-acetylcysteine rescues meiotic arrest during spermatogenesis in mice exposed to BDE-209. Environmental science and pollution research international. 2023 Apr;30(17):50952-50968