Transcriptomic analysis of the seminal vesicle response to the reproductive toxicant acrylamide

Abstract

Background The seminal vesicles synthesise bioactive factors that support gamete function, modulate the female reproductive tract to promote implantation, and influence developmental programming of offspring phenotype. Despite the significance of the seminal vesicles in reproduction, their biology remains poorly defined. Here, to advance understanding of seminal vesicle biology, we analyse the mouse seminal vesicle transcriptome under normal physiological conditions and in response to acute exposure to the reproductive toxicant acrylamide. Mice were administered acrylamide (25 mg/kg bw/day) or vehicle control daily for five consecutive days prior to collecting seminal vesicle tissue 72 h following the final injection. Results A total of 15,304 genes were identified in the seminal vesicles with those encoding secreted proteins amongst the most abundant. In addition to reproductive hormone pathways, functional annotation of the seminal vesicle transcriptome identified cell proliferation, protein synthesis, and cellular death and survival pathways as prominent biological processes. Administration of acrylamide elicited 70 differentially regulated (fold-change ≥1.5 or ≤ 0.67) genes, several of which were orthogonally validated using quantitative PCR. Pathways that initiate gene and protein synthesis to promote cellular survival were prominent amongst the dysregulated pathways. Inflammation was also a key transcriptomic response to acrylamide, with the cytokine, Colony stimulating factor 2 (Csf2) identified as a top-ranked upstream driver and inflammatory mediator associated with recovery of homeostasis. Early growth response (Egr1), C-C motif chemokine ligand 8 (Ccl8), and Collagen, type V, alpha 1 (Col5a1) were also identified amongst the dysregulated genes. Additionally, acrylamide treatment led to subtle changes in the expression of genes that encode proteins secreted by the seminal vesicle, including the complement regulator, Complement factor b (Cfb). Conclusions These data add to emerging evidence demonstrating that the seminal vesicles, like other male reproductive tract tissues, are sensitive to environmental insults, and respond in a manner with potential to exert impact on fetal development and later offspring health.

Prevention of seminal vesicle damage by Mucuna pruriens var. pruriens seed extract in chronic unpredictable mild stress mice

“…A limitation of this study is the lack of transcriptomic analysis of the seminal vesicle responses to the reproductive CUMS to confirm the associations and mechanisms among TyrPho proteins (Skerrett-Byrne et al. 2021 ). Nevertheless, some TyrPho proteins have been characterized for their functions, especially involved in exosome composition and seminal plasma proteome (Candenas and Chianese 2020 ).…”

On the Role of Seminal Fluid Protein and Nucleic Acid Content in Paternal Epigenetic Inheritance

“…The artificial injection of testis-specific sncRNAs into the unicellular embryo has been shown to mediate the paternal effects of diet-induced obesity and metabolic disorders on the offspring [ 124 ]. Furthermore, it is known that the production of Sfcs is adjusted in many taxa depending on different environmental conditions [ 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 125 , 126 , 127 ]. Therefore, a novel role seems plausible for Sfcs to be messengers/markers that collect information from other tissues and transmit it to sperm embedded in different forms of nucleic acids to alter the epigenetic status of the sperm, which may ultimately shape the offspring phenotype [ 23 , 121 , 122 ].…”

On the Role of Seminal Fluid Protein and Nucleic Acid Content in the Paternal Epigenetic Inheritance

“…The artificial injection of testis-specific sRNAs to one-cell embryo also shown as mediates paternal effects of diet-induced obesity and metabolic disorders [122]. Furthermore, it is also known that the production of seminal fluid vesicles and their cargo, as well as free protein and peptide composition are adjusted depending on various environmental conditions [35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][123][124][125]. Therefore, a novel role seems plausible that seminal fluid to be a messenger collecting information from other tissues and transferring it to sperm that are embedded into forms of nucleic acids to modify sperm epigenetic status that can ultimately shape offspring phenotype [23,119,120].…”