Effect of Di-(2-ethylhcxyl) phthalate exposure on blood-testis barrier integrity in rats
SHEN Lianju
TANG Xiangliang
LONG Chunlan
CAO Xining
WEI Yi
WANG Yangcai
SUN Mang
ZHOU Yue
LIU Yang
LIU Bo
HUANG Fangyuan
WEI Guanghui
Abstract：Objective To investigate mechanism of di-(2-ethylhcxyl)phthalate (DEHP) exposure in causing blood-testis barrier (BTB) impairment in rats.Methods Two-months-old male SD rats were randomly divided into corn oil control group and DEHP (750 mg/kg) exposure group for daily intragastic treatment for 30 consecutive days.After the treatments the rats were examined for histomorphological changes of the testicle using HE staining and the expressions of the junction proteins N-cadherin β-catenin,ocdudin and connexin43 of the BTB using Western blot.In the in vitro study,the vitality and ROS generation level in Sertoli ceils exposed to different concentrations of DEHP were examined with MTT and ROS assay kits,respectively,and Nrf2 and p-p38 expressions were detected with Western blot.Results Compared with the control group,the rats with DEHP exposure showed structural damage of the seminiferous tubule and polarity loss of the spermatids.DEHP exposure caused significantly decreased expressions of occludin and connexin43 but increased expressions of N-cadherin and β-catenin in the testicle tissues of the rats (P＜0.05).The vitality of Sertoli cells was obviously decreased and ROS level increased significantly after exposure of the cells to increasing concentrations of DEHP,which also resulted in significantly up-regulated Nrf2 and p-p38 expressions (P＜0.05).Conclusions DEHP exposure causes increased oxidative stress in the Sertoli cells of the testis,activates p38 MAPK signaling pathway,and resuts eventually in impaired spermatogenesis in rats.
Keywords：di-(2-ethylhcxyl)phthalateblood-testis barrierspermatogenesisoxidative stressp38
Publication Date：2017-01-01
Online Publishing Date：2025-08-15(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：5( 1178-1182 )