Autophagy and apoptosis are interlocked in an extensive crosstalk. Our previous study demonstrated that hypotonic hypoxia-induced marked apoptosis of a spermatocyte-derived cell line (GC-2). However, whether hypoxia-induced apoptosis is mediated by inhibition of autophagy under hypoxic conditions remains unclear. In this study, GC-2 cells were cultured in 1% O2 and harvested at different time points. Autophagy was determined by acridine orange staining, cyto-ID staining, mCherry-GFP-LC3B adenovirus transfection and Western blotting for various autophagy markers. Apoptosis was detected by TUNEL staining, flow cytometry, JC-1 staining and Western blotting of apoptosis-related proteins. We found that hypoxia-induced apoptosis of GC-2 cells through mitochondrial and death receptor pathways and inhibited autophagic flux in GC-2 cells in a time-dependent manner. However, while marked autolysosome formation was observed in GC-2 cells before 24-h culture in hypoxic conditions, apparent apoptosis was observed only after 24-h culture in hypoxic conditions. Caspase-8 siRNA treatment induced cell survival, accompanied by induction of the mature autophagosome, acidic vesicular organelle formation and autophagic flux. Furthermore, Beclin-1 overexpression markedly attenuated the impairment of spermatogenesis in mice by inhibiting apoptosis of spermatocytes. The results of this study demonstrate that hypoxia inhibits autophagy, which further enhances hypoxia-induced apoptosis of mouse spermatocytes by promoting caspase-8 activation in a time-dependent manner, suggesting that combined application of apoptosis inhibition and autophagy activation might be a therapeutic strategy for treating hypoxia-induced male infertility.
Reproduction is committed to supporting researchers in demonstrating the impact of their articles published in the journal.
The two types of article metrics we measure are (i) more traditional full-text views and pdf downloads, and (ii) Altmetric data, which shows the wider impact of articles in a range of non-traditional sources, such as social media.
More information is on the Reasons to publish page.
| Sept 2018 onwards | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full Text Views | 43 | 24 | 2 |
| PDF Downloads | 63 | 33 | 1 |
Online ISSN: 1741-7899
Print ISSN: 1470-1626
Strengthening biomedical communities
to advance science and health
CONTACT US
Bioscientifica Ltd | Starling House | 1600 Bristol Parkway North | Bristol BS34 8YU | UK
Bioscientifica Ltd | Registered in England no 3190519
