Abstract
DNA oxidative damage is one of the main concerns being implicated in severe cell alterations, promoting different types of human disorders and diseases. For their characteristics, male gametes are the most sensitive cells to the accumulation of damaged DNA. We have recently reported the relevance of arginine residues in the Cu(II)-induced DNA breakage of sperm H1 histones. In this work, we have extended our previous findings investigating the involvement of human sperm nuclear basic proteins on DNA oxidative damage in healthy males presenting copper and chromium excess in their semen. We found in 84% of those males an altered protamines/histones ratio and a different DNA binding mode even for those presenting a canonical protamines/histones ratio. Furthermore, all the sperm nuclear basic proteins from these samples that resulted were involved in DNA oxidative damage, supporting the idea that these proteins could promote the Fenton reaction in DNA proximity by increasing the availability of these metals near the binding surface of DNA. In conclusion, our study reveals a new and unexpected behavior of human sperm nuclear basic proteins in oxidative DNA damage, providing new insights for understanding the mechanisms related to processes in which oxidative DNA damage is implicated.
Highlights
DNA is the vital carrier of genetic information in all living cells, but its chemical stability is affected by several factors
As a matter of fact, in a previous work, we have demonstrated that some sperm histones, in the presence of specific heavy metals, can participate in DNA oxidative damage [4], suggesting that in particular stress conditions, their protective rule appears to be reversed
This observation prompted us to investigate through molecular-level analyses the possibility that Sperm Nuclear Basic Proteins (SNBP) from men living in polluted areas might have an involvement in oxidative DNA damage
Summary
DNA is the vital carrier of genetic information in all living cells, but its chemical stability is affected by several factors. We found a higher DNA fragmentation index in the spermatozoa of males recruited in the “Land of Fires”, which is a high environmental impact area of Campania Region (Southern Italy) [11,12,13,14] in which resident people presented similar values for semen volume, pH, sperm cell count, and morphology, but a significant increase of immotile cells percentage [11] To this aim, we have evaluated the protein framework, the DNA binding, and the potentiality to induce the oxidative DNA damage of SNBP from a cohort of men living in the “Land of Fires”. This study was conducted as part of a biomonitoring project “EcoFoodFertility” [11] (http://www.ecofoodfertility.it/the-project.html)
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