The Research Advances in Sperm Maturation and Paternal Epigenetic Inheritance Regulated by Epididymosomes
ZHANG Rui-yan
DENG Han-yu
CHEN Ke-xin
MA Zhuo-yao
LIU Yue
DING Zhi-de
Abstract：Epididymis is the key site for sperm maturation,because sperms gain the ability of motility and fertilization in the luminal microenvironment of epididymis.During this process,the levels of small non-coding RNAs in spermatozoa dramatically change.Subsequently,the changed small non-coding RNAs participate in the paternal intergenerational epigenetics.Epididymosomes are extracellular vesicles secreted by the principal cells in the epididymal epithelium,which contain a large number of proteins,nucleic acids and lipids.More and more studies documented that the epididymosomes transmitted many functional small RNAs and proteins to sperm during the sperm maturation in epididymis,thus playing a role in regulating sperm function and transmitting epigenetic information.For example,microRNA can keep the normal sperm morphology and motility,while cysteine rich secretory protein 1(CRISP1)can significantly improve sperm motility.This review was focused on the research advances in sperm maturation via the functional proteins and small RNAs transportation regulated by the epididymosomes during the mammalian sperm transmission in epididymis.
Keywords：EpididymosomeSperm maturationEpigeneticsSmall non-coding RNAProteomics
Publication Date：2024-11-15
Online Publishing Date：2025-08-15(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：6( 518-523 )