Inactivation of mammalian spermatozoa on the exposure of TiO2 nanorods deposited with noble metals

Young-Joo Yi; Love Kumar Dhandole; Dong-Won Seo; Sang-Myeong Lee; Jum Suk Jang

doi:10.1186/s40543-022-00366-x

Inactivation of mammalian spermatozoa on the exposure of TiO₂ nanorods deposited with noble metals

J Anal Sci Technol. 2023;14(1):7. doi: 10.1186/s40543-022-00366-x. Epub 2023 Jan 26.

Authors

Young-Joo Yi^#¹, Love Kumar Dhandole^#², Dong-Won Seo³, Sang-Myeong Lee⁴, Jum Suk Jang²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Agricultural Education, College of Education, Sunchon National University, 255 Jungang-Ro, Suncheon, 57922 Republic of Korea.
² Division of Biotechnology, College of Environmental and Bioresource Sciences, Jeonbuk National University, 79 Gobong-Ro, Iksan, 54596 Jeonbuk Republic of Korea.
³ Department of Vaccine Development, Gyeongbuk Institute for Bio Industry, Andong, 36618 Republic of Korea.
⁴ Laboratory of Veterinary Virology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Chungbuk National University, Cheongju, 28644 Republic of Korea.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Titanium dioxide (TiO₂) nanorods (NRs) are well-known semiconducting and catalytic material that has been widely applied, but their toxicities have also attracted recent interest. In this study, we investigated and compared the toxic effects of TiO₂ NRs and TiO₂ NRs loaded with Ag or Au NPs on boar spermatozoa. As a result, sperm incubated with Ag-TiO₂ NRs showed lower motility than sperm incubated with controls (with or without TiO₂ NRs) or Au-TiO₂ NRs. In addition, sperm viability and acrosomal integrity were defective in the presence of Ag-TiO₂ NRs, and the generation of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) increased significantly when spermatozoa were incubated with 20 μg/ml Ag-TiO₂ NRs. We discussed in depth the charge transfer mechanism between enzymatic NADPH and Ag-TiO₂ NRs in the context of ROS generation in spermatozoa. The effects we observed reflected the fertilization competence of sperm incubated with Ag-TiO₂ NRs; specifically sperm penetration and embryonic development rates by in vitro fertilization were reduced by Ag-TiO₂ NRs. To summarize, our findings indicate that exposure to Ag-TiO₂ NRs could affect male fertilization fecundity and caution that care be exercised when using these NRs.

Keywords: Ag; Au; Embryo development; In vitro fertilization; NADPH; Noble metals; Spermatozoa; TiO2 nanorods.