Comprehensive Analysis of the Association Between Human Non-obstructive Azoospermia and Plasticisers via Single-Cell and Traditional RNA Sequencing Methods

Abstract

A father’s lifetime experience is a major risk factor for a range of diseases in an individual. The influences of exposure can also be transmitted to offspring. Previous studies demonstrated that plasticisers can damage the male offspring reproductive system, but the link between mammalian research and human non-obstructive azoospermia remains underexplored. Here, we analysed reproduction-related genes from four publicly available single-cell RNA-Seq datasets and RNA-Seq datasets on GEO databases to investigate the correlation between human non-obstructive azoospermia and exposure to plasticisers during pregnancy. The R software was used in statistical analyses. A total of 9 co-upregulated genes and 1 co-downregulated gene were found. The Gene Ontology enrichment analyses were performed using the “clusterProfiler” package. Single-cell analyses were conducted to visualise the gene expression pattern in testis cell subgroups. Immunohistochemical images were used to evaluate the level of protein in testicular organs from The Human Protein Atlas. GSVA results provided further functional annotations. Three signature genes, i.e. COL1A1, CYP17A1 and KIF11, might serve as promising diagnostic biomarkers in non-obstructive azoospermia caused by plasticisers. Our results provided a potential new protocol to evaluate the feasibility of life or clinical intervention in patients with non-obstructive azoospermia. We believe that these observations will improve our understanding of the potential mechanisms of plasticiser contributions to human non-obstructive azoospermia and help identify potential targets for immunotherapy in the future.

Identification of the Immune Cell Infiltration Landscape in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma (HNSC) for the Exploration of Immunotherapy and Prognosis

“…Based on the univariate COX regression and multivariate COX regression analysis, we fnally obtain the genes that are closely associated with the prognosis of HNSC patients, which includes ZAP70 and IGKV2D-40. In recent years, many studies focused on bioinformatics analysis to explore the genes that play an important role in the prognosis of tumor patients [21][22][23][24][25]. Tere was a correlation between nivolumab response and HNCAF-0/3 of fbroblast subtypes, whereas HNCAF-1 caused immunosuppression [26].…”

“…Alterations can manifest as abnormal insertions, deletions, or substitutions of nucleotides or chromosomes, resulting in abnormal phenotypes. As a result, genomic biomarkers are valuable for predicting changes in tumor biology during and after chemotherapy and can also be used as therapeutic targets [ 18 ]. Firstly, by performing the differentially expressed analysis, we discovered that a number of genes were regarded as differentially expressed genes.…”

Identification of Glucose Metabolism-Related Genes in the Progression from Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease to Hepatocellular Carcinoma

“…In recent years, many studies have focused on the role of bioinformatics analysis methods in human health [ 39 ]. The bioinformatics analysis could lead to higher-quality research and provide new directions for researchers.…”

Comprehensive Analysis of the Association between Human Diseases and Water Pollutants

“…What is worse, climate change and water pollution further aggravate the crisis of water shortage [ 2 ]. As reported by the World Health Organization, approximately 2 million people in the world do not have access to clean water [ 3 ]. Moreover, it is estimated that about 3.4 million people die each year due to water shortages or water contamination, and 99% of these deaths occur in developing countries [ 4 ].…”