High-Fish Oil and High-Lard Diets Differently Affect Testicular Antioxidant Defense and Mitochondrial Fusion/Fission Balance in Male Wistar Rats: Potential Protective Effect of ω3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids Targeting Mitochondria Dynamics

Abstract

High-fat diets rich in fish oil (HFO diet, mainly ω3-PUFAs), in contrast to high-fat diets rich in lard (HL diet, mainly saturated fatty acids) have been shown to induce improvement in mitochondrial function and fusion processes associated with a reduction in reactive oxygen species production in both liver and skeletal muscle. High-fat diets may also impair testicular function, and mitochondria represent important cellular organelles with a pivotal role in reproductive function. Mitochondria are dynamic organelles that frequently undergo fission/fusion processes. A shift toward mitochondrial fusion process has been associated with improvement of mitochondrial function, as well as with ω3-PUFAs protective effects. The present study aimed to analyze the effect of chronic overfeeding (six weeks) with HFO or HL diet on testicular tissue histology, oxidative stress, antioxidant defenses, and mitochondrial fusion (mitofusin 2) and fission (dynamic related protein 1) protein. Our results showed that HFO diet induced less testicular histology impairment, oxidative stress, and apoptosis compared to a HL diet. This finding was associated with an increase in antioxidant activities and a shift toward mitochondrial fusion processes induced by HFO diet compared to HL diet, suggesting that ω3-PUFAs may act as bioactive compound targeting mitochondria dynamics to prevent testicular impairment.

Dose-Dependent Response to the Environmental Pollutant Dichlorodipheniletylhene (DDE) in HepG2 Cells: Focus on Cell Viability and Mitochondrial Fusion/Fission Proteins

“…The balance between fusion and fission processes produces a mitochondrial network reorganization in response to various mitochondrial stressors and diseases [49]. Among others, our previous finding evidenced a possible role of mitochondrial dynamics in the control of cellular health and functionality in different tissues [55,80], suggesting the importance of studying these physiological mechanisms, mainly in the liver, that play a key role in lipid metabolism as well as in detoxification processes against external toxic agents [81]. We chose to analyze MFN2 because it has also been suggested that MFN2 is a protective target in the liver, as it controls the physiological balance between apoptosis and autophagy in liver failure [82].…”

Mitochondrial Involvement in the Adaptive Response to Chronic Exposure to Environmental Pollutants and High-Fat Feeding in a Rat Liver and Testis

“…Several research groups, including our group, have shown that HFD induces alterations in the serum lipid profile, as well as increasing both the body weight and lipid depots in adipose tissue and ectopic sites [17,29,60,61]. It is noteworthy that a high dietary fat intake has been shown to be associated with oxidative stress induction in different experimental models and tissues [29,31,32,62,63], suggesting that fatty acids represent a critical point in the development of metabolic disorders associated with obesity. Moreover, as stated above, another environmental condition that may induce oxidative stress in different tissues and organs is the exposure to environmental pollutants [15,16].…”

Alpha‐lipoic acid may ameliorate testicular damage by targeting dox‐induced altered antioxidant parameters, mitofusin‐2 and apoptotic gene expression

“…DOX‐induced cellular dysfunction is associated with disrupted balance between mitochondrial fusion and fission mechanisms that are essential for health of cell and mitochondrial function (Marechal et al., 2011). MFN2, the fusion protein, is essential for the maintenance of spermatogonial differentiation and spermatogenesis (Migliaccio et al., 2019). It has been demonstrated that ROS production increased in MFN2 deficiency (Munoz et al., 2013).…”