Endogenous hydrogen sulfide counteracts polystyrene nanoplastics-induced mitochondrial apoptosis and excessive autophagy via regulating Nrf2 and PGC-1α signaling pathway in mouse spermatocyte-derived GC-2spd(ts) cells

Nanoplastics (NaPs) has reported to accumulate in the testes and cause degeneration in the seminiferous tubules. Additionally, exogenous hydrogen sulfide (HS) is proposed to enhance tolerance to oxidative stress. The current work aimed to investigate the mechanisms of NaPs-induced reproductive toxicity in vitro and probable reproductive protection by endogenous HS. We firstly found that 80 nm fluorescent NaPs could enter into GC-2spd(ts) cells by fluorescent inverted microscope. In addition, we demonstrated that NaPs-induced could induce ROS-dependent mitochondrial apoptosis and autophagy in vitro. Our results showed that the HS donor NaHS ameliorated NaPs-triggered mitochondrial apoptosis and autophagy in GC-2spd(ts) cells. Moreover, NaPs treatment did not change the interaction between nuclear factor erythroid-derived 2-related factor (Nrf2) and Kelch-like ECH associated protein 1 (Keap1), while inhibiting nuclear accumulation of Nrf2 protein was observed. Meanwhile, NaHS weakened this interaction, subsequently improving antioxidant ability via increasing the protein levels of heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) and NAD(P)H dehydrogenase quinone 1 (NQO1). Further, invitro experiments showed that NaPs-induced reproductive toxicity associated with reducing PGC-1α. Meanwhile, NaPs-induced higher expression PGC-1α was further enhanced by NaHS co-treatment. Together, this study highlight that exogenous HS should be an essential therapeutic approach to alleviate NaPs-induced reproductive toxicity via regulating Nrf2/PGC-1α signal.