Spermatogonia apoptosis induction as a possible mechanism of toxoplasma gondii induced male infertility Running Title: Apoptosis in Spermatogonia
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Objectives: The protozoan Toxoplasma gondii as an intracellular protozoan is widely prevalent in humans and animals. Infection generally occurs through consuming food or drink contaminated with oocysts and tissue cysts from undercooked meat. This parasite infects different parts of men even from semen but there are little information about the effect of toxoplasmosis on male reproductive system. In this study, the effect of RH strain T. gondii tachyzoites on type B spermatogonia (GC-1) cells was investigated. Methods: Fresh tachyzoites taken of infected balb/c mice, GC-1 cells were infected with increasing concentrations of tachyzoites of T. gondii, then apoptotic cells identified and quantified by flow cytometry. The genes associated with the apoptosis were evaluated by RT2 Profiler PCR Array. Results: PCR array analysis of 84 apoptosis-related genes demonstrated that 12 genes were upregulated at least 4-fold and that 1 genes were downregulated at least 2-fold in the T. gondii infection group compared with levels in the control group. The number of genes whose expression had increased during the period of infection with T. gondii was significantly higher than those whose expressions had decreased (18 versus 1) and Tnfrsf11b has the highest rate of gene expression. Conclusions: T. gondii induce the in vitro apoptosis of GC-1 cells. This effect shows a trend of concentration-dependent increase, so that with increase in the ratio of parasite burden to spermatogonial cells, in addition to increase in the number of genes whose expression has changed, the fold of these changes has increased as well.
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