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Updated: Dec 12, 2025
Phosphopeptide Analysis of Rodent Epididymal Spermatozoa
Published on: December 30, 2014
Effect of transient scrotal hyperthermia on human sperm: an iTRAQ-based proteomic analysis
Yan-Qing Wu1, Meng Rao2, Shi-Fu Hu1
1Institute of Reproductive Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, People's Republic of China.
Background:
Through this prospective study, we aimed to explore the change of molecular modification after the transient scrotal hyperthermia on human sperm.
Methods:
Ten healthy subjects selected with strict screening criteria underwent testicular warming in a 43 °C water bath for 30 min a day for 10 consecutive days. Semen samples were collected 2 weeks before the first heat treatment and 6 weeks after the first heat treatment. Proteins from the samples were labeled with isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation and analyzed by two-dimensional liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.
Results:
In contrast to the control, of the 3446 proteins identified, 61 proteins were deregulated: 28 were up-regulated and 33 were down-regulated. Approximately 95% of the differentially expressed proteins were found to participate in spermatogenesis, fertilization, or other aspects of reproduction. In particular, the expression of sperm motility and energy metabolism-related proteins AKAP4, SPESP1, ODF1, ODF2, GAPDHS, and ACTRT2, validated by western blotting of the proteins obtained from human and mouse samples, tended to be reduced under scrotal hyperthermia.
Conclusions:
The results indicated that the proteins AKAP4, ODF1, ODF2, GAPDHS, SPESP1, and ACTRT2, play an important role in the heat-induced reversible reduction in sperm concentration and motility and have the potential to be the biomarkers and clinical targets for scrotal heat treatment induced male infertility.
