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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Endocrinol.
Sec. Reproduction
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fendo.2024.1412684
This article is part of the Research Topic Adipose tissue and adipokines: their roles in human reproduction View all 4 articles

Male infertility risk and plasma lipidome: a Mendelian randomization study

Provisionally accepted
Yang Yang Yang Yang 1Xinyu Xue Xinyu Xue 2*Jun Zhou Jun Zhou 3*Zerui Qiu Zerui Qiu 1*Biao Wang Biao Wang 1*Guangyang Ou Guangyang Ou 1Qing Zhou Qing Zhou 3*
  • 1 The First Clinical College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Hunan University of Chinese Medicine, Changsha, China, changsha, China
  • 2 Hunan University of Chinese Medicine, Changsha, Anhui Province, China
  • 3 The First Hospital of Hunan University of Chinese Medicine, Changsha, Hunan, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    In recent years, the decline in sperm quality in men has become a global trend. There is a close relationship between sperm quality and pregnancy outcome. There is a large body of literature supporting the role of plasma lipidome in male infertility, while the complex mechanisms between them and male infertility are still less clear. Systematic study of the causal relationship between plasma lipidome and MI can help to provide new therapeutic ideas and targets for male infertility.In this study, we used a two-sample Mendelian randomization analysis based on Genome-wide association studies pooled data of 179 causal relationships between plasma lipidome and male infertility. We used employed the inverse variance weighted method as the main analysis to assess causality between exposure and outcome, in addition to MR-Egger, Weighted median as complementary methods, and tests for multiplicity and heterogeneity.We identified 13 plasma lipidome comprising 4 types of plasma lipidome that were associated with male infertility. Among these, 9 plasma lipidome were found to be protective factors, while 4 were risk factors. Notably, the largest proportion of these plasma lipidome were triglyceride types, with Sphingomyelin (d40:1) exhibiting the strongest association with male infertility. CONCLUSION: These findings contribute to the current better understanding of male infertility and provide new perspectives on the underlying etiology of male infertility as well as prevention and treatment strategies. In addition, clinical trial validation is needed to assess the potential of these plasma lipidome as biomarkers.

    Keywords: male infertility, Mendelian randomization, Plasma lipidome, GWAS, sperm quality

    Received: 05 Apr 2024; Accepted: 25 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Yang, Xue, Zhou, Qiu, Wang, Ou and Zhou. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Xinyu Xue, Hunan University of Chinese Medicine, Changsha, 410208, Anhui Province, China
    Jun Zhou, The First Hospital of Hunan University of Chinese Medicine, Changsha, Hunan, China
    Zerui Qiu, The First Clinical College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Hunan University of Chinese Medicine, Changsha, China, changsha, China
    Biao Wang, The First Clinical College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Hunan University of Chinese Medicine, Changsha, China, changsha, China
    Qing Zhou, The First Hospital of Hunan University of Chinese Medicine, Changsha, Hunan, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.