ABSTRACT
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are mediators of the aging process. The purpose of this work was to analyze the miRNA expression profiles of spermatozoa from men of different ages with normal fertility. Twenty-seven donors were divided into three groups by age (Group A, n = 8, age: 20-30 years; Group B, n = 10, age: 31-40 years; and Group C, n = 9, age: 41-55 years) for high-throughput sequencing analysis. Samples from 65 individuals (22, 22, and 21 in Groups A, B, and C, respectively) were used for validation by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). A total of 2160 miRNAs were detected: 1223 were known, 937 were newly discovered and unnamed, of which 191 were expressed in all donors. A total of 7, 5, and 17 differentially expressed microRNAs (DEMs) were found in Group A vs B, Group B vs C, and Group A vs C comparisons, respectively. Twenty-two miRNAs were statistically correlated with age. Twelve miRNAs were identified as age-associated miRNAs, including hsa-miR-127-3p, mmu-miR-5100_L+2R-1, efu-miR-9226_L-2_1ss22GA, cgr-miR-1260_L+1, hsa-miR-652-3p_R+1, pal-miR-9993a-3p_L+2R-1, hsa-miR-7977_1ss6AG, hsa-miR-106b-3p_R-1, hsa-miR-186-5p, PC-3p-59611_111, hsa-miR-93-3p_R+1, and aeca-mir-8986a-p5_1ss1GA. There were 9165 target genes of age-associated miRNAs. Gene Ontology (GO) analysis of the target genes identified revealed enrichment of protein binding, membrane, cell cycle, and so on. The Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analysis of age-related miRNAs for target genes revealed 139 enriched pathways, such as signaling pathways regulating stem cell pluripotency, metabolic pathways, and the Hippo signaling pathway. This suggests that miRNAs play a key role in male fertility changes with increasing age and provides new evidence for the study of the mechanism of age-related male fertility decline.
Subject(s)
Humans , Male , Young Adult , Adult , Middle Aged , MicroRNAs/genetics , Signal Transduction/genetics , Spermatozoa/metabolism , Gene Expression ProfilingABSTRACT
Objective To discuss the personality characteristics and blood lipid levels in patients with infertility and depression,and further analyze the relationship between the degree of depression and the two aspects.Methods We selected 190 infertility patients and they were tested with Self-Rating Depression Scale(SDS) in Tangshan Maternal and Child Health Care Hospital Affiliated to North China University of Science and Technology from December,2015 to December,2016.All the patients were allocated into depression group (with depression symptom) and non-depression group (without depression symptom).Blood lipid levels,including triglycerides (TG),total cholesterol(TC),low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) were determined and the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire(EPQ) was applied to evaluate the personality traits in both groups.Results The patients in the depression group were mainly mild-to-moderate depression accouting for 64.4％,and patients with moderate to severe depression accouted for approximately 30.0％.The levels of TG and TC of patients in the depression group were significantly higher than those in the non-depression group(P＜0.01).The scores of neuroticism(N),validity scale(L) and psychoticism(P) of patients in the depression group were significantly higher than those in the non-depression group,while there was no significant difference in exextraversion (E) between the two groups.TG,E dimension,P dimension and L dimension were effective predictors of depression in infertile patients,and the Beta coefficient were 0.199,-0.240,0.424 and 0.220.Pearson partial correlation analysis showed that TG was positively correlated with P,N and L dimensions.Conclusion Infertility patients with depression may have dyslipidemia and personality changes.The degree of depression is positively correlated to the level of TG and the score of P and N.