IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v13y2016i10p993-d79936.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Use of the Nematode Caenorhabditis elegans to Evaluate the Adverse Effects of Epoxiconazole Exposure on Spermatogenesis

Author

Listed:
  • Yunhui Li

    (Key Laboratory of Environmental Medicine Engineering Ministry of Education, School of Public Health, Southeast University, Nanjing 210009, Jiangsu, China)

  • Minhui Zhang

    (Key Laboratory of Environmental Medicine Engineering Ministry of Education, School of Public Health, Southeast University, Nanjing 210009, Jiangsu, China)

  • Shaojun Li

    (Department of Molecular Pharmacology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York, NY 10461, USA)

  • Rongrong Lv

    (Key Laboratory of Environmental Medicine Engineering Ministry of Education, School of Public Health, Southeast University, Nanjing 210009, Jiangsu, China)

  • Pan Chen

    (Department of Molecular Pharmacology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York, NY 10461, USA)

  • Ran Liu

    (Key Laboratory of Environmental Medicine Engineering Ministry of Education, School of Public Health, Southeast University, Nanjing 210009, Jiangsu, China)

  • Geyu Liang

    (Key Laboratory of Environmental Medicine Engineering Ministry of Education, School of Public Health, Southeast University, Nanjing 210009, Jiangsu, China)

  • Lihong Yin

    (Key Laboratory of Environmental Medicine Engineering Ministry of Education, School of Public Health, Southeast University, Nanjing 210009, Jiangsu, China)

Abstract

There is increasing evidence that epoxiconazole exposure can affect reproductive function, but few studies have investigated adverse effects on spermatogenesis. The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans ( C. elegans ) was used in our study to assess effects of epoxiconazole on spermatogenesis in male nematodes after 48 h of exposure to concentrations of 0.1, 1.0, or 10.0 μg/L. The results demonstrated that epoxiconazole exposure affected spermatogenesis, decreasing the number of total germ cells, mitotic cells, meiotic cells and spermatids, spermatid diameter, and cross-sectional area, and inducing mitotic germ cell proliferation arrest, premature entry into meiosis, and sperm activation inhibition; however, sperm transfer showed no abnormal changes. In addition, the results showed that epoxiconazole activated the transforming growth factor-β (TGFβ) signaling pathway and increased the expression levels of gene daf-1 , daf-3 , daf-4 , daf-5 and daf-7 in nematodes. We therefore propose that epoxiconazole acts by activating the TGFβ signaling pathway, leading to the impairment of spermatogenesis and the consequent decline in male fertility.

Suggested Citation

  • Yunhui Li & Minhui Zhang & Shaojun Li & Rongrong Lv & Pan Chen & Ran Liu & Geyu Liang & Lihong Yin, 2016. "The Use of the Nematode Caenorhabditis elegans to Evaluate the Adverse Effects of Epoxiconazole Exposure on Spermatogenesis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-12, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:13:y:2016:i:10:p:993-:d:79936
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/10/993/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/10/993/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:13:y:2016:i:10:p:993-:d:79936. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.