Thyroid dysfunctions, such as hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism, are the second most prevalent endocrinopathies and are associated to reproductive disorders in men. Several genes are differentially modulated by thyroid hormones in testes and imbalances in thyroid hormone levels are also associated to alterations on sperm functionality. Imbalances on antioxidant defense mechanism and stress oxidative have been pointed out as the main factors for the impairments on male reproductive function. To clarify this issue, we investigated the expression and activity of antioxidant enzymes in testis, followed by their proteomic profile in attempt to characterize the mechanisms involved in the alterations induced by hypo- or hyperthyroidism in adult male rats. Hypothyroidism reduced the Gsr transcript expression and the activity of CAT and GSR enzymes, while the hyperthyroidism reduced the Gpx4 var2 transcript expression. Among 1082 identified proteins, 123 and 37 proteins were downregulated by hypothyroidism compared to euthyroid and hyperthyroid condition, respectively, being 36 proteins commonly reduced in both comparisons and one exclusively in hypo-hyperthyroidism comparison. A network containing 29 nodes and 68 edges was obtained in protein-protein interaction analysis and the functional enrichment analysis of differentially expressed proteins revealed significant alterations for several functions in hypo-euthyroid and hypo-hyperthyroid comparisons, such as ATP metabolic process, coenzyme binding, sperm part, peroxiredoxin activity, mitochondrial protein complex, intramolecular oxidoreductase activity, binding of sperm to zona pellucida, glutathione transferase activity, response to testosterone. Thus, there is a correlation between thyroid disorders and impaired antioxidant defense mechanism, resulting in reproductive dysfunctions, as infertility, mainly observed in hypothyroidism.
Keywords: Antioxidant enzymes; Hyperthyroidism; Hypothyroidism; Male infertility; Sperm abnormalities; Spermatogenesis.