Journal
MUTATION RESEARCH-FUNDAMENTAL AND MOLECULAR MECHANISMS OF MUTAGENESIS
Volume 529, Issue 1-2, Pages 21-34Publisher
ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/S0027-5107(03)00101-5
Keywords
DNA damage; human spermatozoa; oxidative stress; mitochondrial DNA; quantitative PCR
Funding
- NICHD NIH HHS [F32 HD 08557-01] Funding Source: Medline
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Recent studies have suggested that human spermatozoa are highly susceptible to DNA damage induced by oxidative stress. However, a detailed analysis of the precise nature of this damage and the extent to which it affects the mitochondrial and nuclear genomes has not been reported. To induce DNA damage, human spermatozoa were treated in vitro with hydrogen peroxide (H2O2; 0-5 mM) or iron (as Fe(II)SO4, 0-500 muM). Quantitative PCR (QPCR) was used to measure DNA damage in individual nuclear genes (hprt, beta-pol and beta-globin) and mitochondrial DNA. Single strand breaks were also assessed by alkaline gel electrophoresis. H2O2 was found to be genotoxic toward spermatozoa at concentrations as high as 1.25 mM, but DNA damage was not detected in these cells with lower concentrations of H2O2. The mitochondrial genome of human spermatozoa was significantly (P < 0.001) more susceptible to H2O2-induced DNA damage than the nuclear genome. However, both nDNA and mtDNA in human spermatozoa were significantly (P < 0.001) more resistant to damage than DNA from a variety of cell lines of germ cell and myoblastoid origin. Interestingly, significant DNA damage was also not detected in human spermatozoa treated with iron. These studies report, for the first time, quantitative measurements of DNA damage in specific genes of male germ cells, and challenge the commonly held belief that human spermatozoa are particularly vulnerable to DNA damage. (C) 2003 Published by Elsevier B.V.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available