Glutathione S‐transferase kappa 1 is positively related with sperm quality of porcine sperm

Abstract

The glutathione S-transferase (GST) superfamily members play an important role in the male reproductive tract and sperm physiology. However, the expression profiles of some members of this protein family and their effect on sperm quality remain unclear. In this study, we found that GST kappa 1 (GSTK1) encoded protein is abundant in the testes and capacitated sperm acrosome. Western blot analysis revealed that the decreased abundance of GSTK1 was observed in low motile spermatozoa; moreover, GSTK1 expression decreased in sperm stored at 17°C under a long preservation time. In vitro analyses revealed that GSTK1 had no significant effect on sperm motility, capacitation, or acrosome reaction. Notably, after capacitated sperm were incubated with 4 and 8 μg/ml anti-GSTK1 antibodies, the fertilization rate significantly decreased in vitro fertilization assay. The current study demonstrates that GSTK1 is correlated with sperm quality and is a promising marker for the assessment of sperm quality and provides a basis for understanding the potential molecular mechanism for targeting pathogenic factors in male infertility.

Decreased Klotho Expression Causes Accelerated Decline of Male Fecundity through Oxidative Injury in Murine Testis

“…There is also evidence that the expression of GSTK1 is reduced in low-motility porcine spermatozoa. Moreover, blocking porcine sperm with anti-GSTK1 antibodies led to a poor fertilization rate in an in vitro fertilization assay [ 32 ]. GSTO2, which is enriched in the testes and located in the perinuclear theca of murine sperm, participates in nuclear decondensation and is required for complete zygotic development [ 33 ].…”

“…After analysis of three independent biological batches that contained three 2-month-old WT and Kl KO mice, we classified proteins with an expression cut-off of ±1.5-fold change (p < 0.05, Student's t-test) as DEPs. Gene Ontology (GO) and gene functional classification of significantly upregulated or downregulated DEPs were performed using the Database for Annotation, Visualization, and Integrated Discovery (DAVID) functional annotation clustering tool with default settings (https://david.ncifcrf.gov/, accessed on 15 June 2022) [24,25] to characterize the biological processes, molecular functions, and reactomes affected by Kl KO. We also used Metascape, a gene annotation and analysis resource, and integrated numerous databases (e.g., GO Biological Processes, Reactome Gene Sets, STRING) (https://metascape.org/, accessed on 15 June 2022) [26] to depict a network model that emphasizes enhanced processes and PPI data.…”