Role of Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress in The Male Reproductive System

Document Type : Review Article

Authors

1 Department of Animal Biotechnology, Reproductive Biomedicine Research Center, Royan Institute for Biotechnology, ACECR, Isfahan, Iran

2 GReD Institute, INSERM-CNRS-Université Clermont Auvergne, Faculty of Medicine, CRBC, Clermont-Ferrand, France

Abstract

Testicular dysfunction, whether linked to varicocele, obesity, diabetes, aging, inflammation, or lifestyle or environmental
issues, is frequently accompanied by an accumulation of unfolded or misfolded proteins, indicating impaired endoplasmic
reticulum (ER) function. In this review, we examined the Google Scholar, Scopus and PubMed databases (from 2011
to 2022) to support the association of ER stress with defective spermatogenesis in animal models and humans. ER
stress, whether in its pro-survival or pro-apoptotic aspect, appears to be closely linked to each studied situation.
Several studies have demonstrated a significant increase in oxidative stress (OS) levels in infertile men compared to
fertile individuals, which is associated with poor spermatogenesis quality. OS is likely the result of the interplay between
ER stress and spermatogenesis defects. These findings suggest that therapeutic strategies aimed at mitigating both
ER stress and OS could be of interest in restoring male reproductive function.

Keywords

Main Subjects

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