Seminal plasma metabolomics approach for the diagnosis of unexplained male infertility

Shanlei Qiao; Wei Wu; Minjian Chen; Qiuqin Tang; Yankai Xia; Wei Jia; Xinru Wang

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0181115

Seminal plasma metabolomics approach for the diagnosis of unexplained male infertility

PLoS One. 2017 Aug 10;12(8):e0181115. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0181115. eCollection 2017.

Authors

Shanlei Qiao^{1

2}, Wei Wu^{1

2}, Minjian Chen^{1

2}, Qiuqin Tang³, Yankai Xia^{1

2}, Wei Jia⁴, Xinru Wang^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Reproductive Medicine, Institute of Applied Toxicology, School of Public Health, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China.
² Key Laboratory of Modern Toxicology of Ministry of Education, School of Public Health, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China.
³ State Key Laboratory of Reproductive Medicine, Department of Obstetrics, Nanjing Maternity and Child Health Hospital, Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital Affiliated to Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China.
⁴ University of Hawaii Cancer Center, Honolulu, Hawaii, United States of America.

Abstract

We used a gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) based metabolomics approach to obtain the metabolic profiling of unexplained male infertility (UMI), and identified seminal plasma biomarkers associated with UMI by a two-stage population study. A robust OPLS-DA model based on these identified metabolites was able to distinguish 82% of the UMI patients from health controls with a specificity of 92%. In this model, 44 metabolites were found differentially expressed in UMI subjects compared with health controls. By pathway enrichment analysis, we identified several major changed metabolic pathways related to UMI. Our findings provide new perspective for the diagnosis of UMI.

MeSH terms

Adult
Biomarkers / analysis
Biomarkers / metabolism
Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry / methods
Humans
Infertility, Male / diagnosis*
Infertility, Male / metabolism*
Male
Metabolic Networks and Pathways
Metabolome*
Metabolomics / methods*
Semen / chemistry
Semen / metabolism*

Substances

Biomarkers

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and Priority Academic Program for the Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.