Open AccessPhosphoribosyl-pyrophosphate synthetase 2 (PRPS2) depletion regulates spermatogenic cell apoptosis and is correlated with hypospermatogenesis
Author(s) -
Bin Lei,
Lin Xie,
ShouBo Zhang,
Bo Wan,
Lintao Zhong,
Xuming Zhou,
Xiangming Mao,
Fangpeng Shu
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
asian journal of andrology/asian journal of andrology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1745-7262
pISSN - 1008-682X
DOI - 10.4103/aja.aja_122_19
Subject(s) - apoptosis , biology , caspase 3 , microbiology and biotechnology , programmed cell death , cancer research , genetics
Phosphoribosyl-pyrophosphate synthetase 2 (PRPS2) is a rate-limiting enzyme and plays an important role in purine and pyrimidine nucleotide synthesis. Recent studies report that PRPS2 is involved in male infertility. However, the role of PRPS2 in hypospermatogenesis is unknown. In this study, the relationship of PRPS2 with hypospermatogenesis and spermatogenic cell apoptosis was investigated. The results showed that PRPS2 depletion increased the number of apoptotic spermatogenic cells in vitro. PRPS2 was downregulated in a mouse model of hypospermatogenesis. When PRPS2 expression was knocked down in mouse testes, hypospermatogenesis and accelerated apoptosis of spermatogenic cells were noted. E2F transcription factor 1 (E2F1) was confirmed as the target gene of PRPS2 and played a key role in cell apoptosis by regulating the P53/Bcl-xl/Bcl-2/Caspase 6/Caspase 9 apoptosis pathway. Therefore, these data indicate that PRPS2 depletion contributes to the apoptosis of spermatogenic cells and is associated with hypospermatogenesis, which may be helpful for the diagnosis of male infertility.