Title

Mercury-Induced Inhibition of Tyrosine Phosphorylation of Sperm Proteins and Altered Functional Dynamics of Buck Spermatozoa: an In Vitro Study.

Authors

Kushawaha, Bhawna; Yadav, Rajkumar Singh; Swain, Dilip Kumar; Rai, Pradeep K; Garg, Satish Kumar

Abstract

Present study was undertaken on buck spermatozoa to investigate the effect of mercuric chloride on functional dynamics of buck spermatozoa. Four different concentrations (0.031, 0.125, 0.25 and 1.25 μg/mL) of mercuric chloride, which were 1/40th, 1/10th, 1/5th and equivalent to the LC50 value of HgCl2, were selected for studying their effect following in vitro exposure for 15 min and 3 h. Exposure of spermatozoa to 0.031 μg/mL mercuric chloride for 3 h resulted in significant (p 2 significantly (p 2 and cAMP levels. Immuno-blotting of semen samples of control and 0.031 μg/mL mercury-treated groups showed low intensity bands of p55, p70, p80, p105 and p190 kDa tyrosine phosphorylation proteins while higher concentration-treated groups showed no such bands. Our findings evidently suggest that mercuric chloride even at 0.031 μg/mL adversely affected sperm functions, inhibited tyrosine phosphorylation proteins and capacitation due to oxidative stress. Spontaneous acrosome reaction (AR) in mercury-treated spermatozoa may possibly be due to increase in intracellular Ca2 and cAMP levels, and capacitation failure may be due to inhibition of tyrosine phosphorylation of proteins.

Subjects

REACTIVE oxygen species; SPERMATOZOA; MERCURY vapor; TYROSINE; OXIDANT status; MERCURY (Element); ACROSOME reaction; INTRACELLULAR calcium

Publication

Biological Trace Element Research, 2020, Vol 198, Issue 2, p478

ISSN

0163-4984

Publication type

Academic Journal

DOI

10.1007/s12011-020-02077-z