Effect of telomere length and related gene polymorphism in signaling pathway on semen quality

作者：Xueshan Jia, jinhu Cao, Shengnan Zhang, Ke Feng, J. Li, Haibin Guo, Xiaowei Qu, Tao Ling, Yanyan Yang, Aihua Wu, WeiHang Ling, Chen Zhang, Qingfeng Tian, Guang-hui Zhang · 发表于：Scientific Reports · 年份：2026 · DOI：10.1038/s41598-025-34054-8 · 被引用次数：1 · 研究领域：Telomeres, Telomerase, and Senescence、Sperm and Testicular Function、Male Reproductive Health Studies

This study investigates sperm telomere length (STL), gene polymorphisms in telomere-related pathway genes, and semen quality, were detected to evaluate their potential as a biomarkers of semen quality. Associationally, it explores between gene polymorphisms and STL, and semen quality. A total of 1,349 male volunteers from the Pu-yang Reproductive Medicine Center were selected as research subjects. Computer-aided sperm analysis analysis was employed to assess semen parameters. Real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR was utilized to measure STL, while polymerase chain reaction was used to detect gene polymorphisms. The correlation between STL, related gene polymorphisms, and semen parameters was subsequently analyzed. Among the 1,349 subjects, the proportions of semen volume, total sperm count, sperm concentration, progressive motility, and total sperm motility meeting the criteria exceeded 80%, whereas the proportion of normal morphology was only 32.46%. The results of the restricted cubic spline (RCS) analysis indicated that STL exhibtied a nonlinear relationship with sperm concentration (P < 0.001) and total sperm count (P = 0.007). After categorizing STL levels into quartiles, the risk of abnormalities in total sprem count (OR = 0.37[0.15,0.94], P = 0.037), sperm concentration (OR = 0.31[0.11,0.83], P = 0.020), progressive motility (OR = 0.27[0.12,0.61)], P = 0.002), and total vitality percentage (OR = 0.19[0.07,0.51], P = 0.001) was lower in the third quartile when compare...