The Potential Protective Effect and Possible Mechanism of Peptides from Oyster (Crassostrea hongkongensis) Hydrolysate on Triptolide-Induced Testis Injury in Male Mice

Abstract

Peptides from oyster hydrolysate (OPs) have a variety of biological activities. However, its protective effect and exact mechanism on testicular injury remain poorly understood. This study aimed to evaluate the protective effect of OPs on triptolide (TP)-induced testis damage and spermatogenesis dysfunction and investigate its underlying mechanism. In this work, the TP-induced testis injury model was created while OPs were gavaged in mice for 4 weeks. The results showed that OPs significantly improved the sperm count and motility of mice, and alleviated the seminiferous tubule injury. Further study showed that OPs decreased malonaldehyde (MDA) level and increased antioxidant enzyme (SOD and GPH-Px) activities, attenuating oxidative stress and thereby reducing the number of apoptotic cells in the testis. In addition, OPs improved the activities of enzymes (LDH, ALP and ACP) related to energy metabolism in the testis and restored the serum hormone level of mice to normal. Furthermore, OPs promoted the expression of Nrf2 protein, and then increased the expression of antioxidant enzyme regulatory protein (HO-1 and NQO1) in the testis. OPs inhibited JNK phosphorylation and Bcl-2/Bax-mediated apoptosis. In conclusion, OPs have a protective effect on testicular injury and spermatogenesis disorders caused by TP, suggesting the potential protection of OPs on male reproduction.

Hindlimb unloading induces time-dependent disruption of testicular histology in mice

“…Specifically, we observed conformational changes and/or reduced content of several amino acids accompanying the suppression of Raman spectra in the skeletal muscle of HU mice 6 , 18 . The amino acids have a potential protective effect against testicular injuries 29 . Thus, our observation of suppressed Raman spectra and testicular histopathology is consistent with literature and indicate the potential efficacy of Raman spectra in diagnosing testicular pathology.…”

Sea cucumber peptides positively regulate sexual hormones in male mice with acute exhaustive swimming: possibly through the Ca2+/PKA signaling pathway

“…1 Recently, oyster peptides were proven to significantly increase the serum level of testosterone (T) in exercise-fatigue male mice while decreasing the T level in triptolide (TP)-induced testis damage mice. 2,3 Unfortunately, there is still limited research on the hormonal regulatory activity of other bioactive peptides. Sea cucumber is widely consumed in Asian countries as a tonic food.…”

Novel Antioxidant Peptides from Crassostrea Hongkongensis Improve Photo-Oxidation in UV-Induced HaCaT Cells

“…According to the Compendium of Materia Medica written by Li Shizhen, a famous medical scientist in ancient Chinese, dietary oysters supplementation can white and rejuvenate skin. Further, many studies show that oyster and oyster-derived peptides can help treat hyperglycemia [8] and chronic alcohol-induced liver injury [9], improve reproductive ability [10,11], and display anti-apoptotic [12,13], antioxidant [14][15][16][17], immunomodulatory [18], and anti-inflammatory properties [19]. In recent years, a new term "target repositioning" has been proposed, to highlight that druggable protein targets implicated in multiple diseases (hubs in the diseasome) can be exploited to accelerate the discovery of molecularly targeted cosmeceuticals that can promote skin health as an added benefit [20].…”