Asthenozoospermia (AS) is a common factor of male infertility, and its pathogenesis remains unclear. The purpose of this study was to investigate the differential seminal plasma metabolic pattern in asthenozoospermic men and to identify potential biomarkers in relation to spermatogenic dysfunction using sensitive ultra‐high‐performance liquid chromatography–tandem quadruple time‐of‐flight MS (UHPLC–Q‐TOF/MS). The samples of seminal plasma from patients with AS (n  = 20) and healthy controls (n  = 20) were checked and differentiated by UHPLC–Q‐TOF/MS. Compared with the control group, the AS group showed a total of nine significantly different metabolites, including increases in creatinine, uric acid, N⁶‐methyladenosine (m⁶A), uridine, and taurine and decreases in carnitine, nicotinamide, N‐acetylputrescine and l ‐palmitoylcarnitine. By analyzing the correlation among these metabolites and clinical computer‐assisted semen analysis reports, we found that m⁶A is significantly correlated with not only the four decreased metabolites but also with sperm count, motility, and curvilinear velocity. Furthermore, nicotinamide was shown to correlate with other identified metabolites, indicating its important role in the metabolic pathway of AS. Current results implied that sensitive untargeted seminal plasma metabolomics could identify distinct metabolic patterns of AS and would help clinicians by offering novel cues for discovering the pathogenesis of male infertility.

中文翻译：

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使用超高效液相色谱-串联四极杆飞行时间质谱法对弱精子症患者精液进行代谢组学表征。

弱精子症（AS）是男性不育的常见因素，其发病机制尚不清楚。本研究的目的是研究弱精子症男性的不同精浆代谢模式，并使用灵敏的超高效液相色谱-串联四极杆飞行时间质谱 (UHPLC-Q-飞行时间/质谱）。 用 UHPLC-Q-TOF/MS 检查和区分来自 AS 患者 ( n  = 20) 和健康对照 ( n = 20)的精浆样品。与对照组相比，AS 组共表现出 9 种显着不同的代谢产物，包括肌酐、尿酸、N ⁶甲基腺苷（m ⁶A)、尿苷和牛磺酸以及肉碱、烟酰胺、N-乙酰腐胺和l-棕榈酰肉碱的减少。通过分析这些代谢物和临床计算机辅助精液分析报告之间的相关性，我们发现 m ⁶ A 不仅与四种减少的代谢物显着相关，而且与精子数量、运动能力和曲线速度显着相关。此外，烟酰胺显示与其他已鉴定的代谢物相关，表明其在 AS 代谢途径中的重要作用。目前的结果表明，敏感的非靶向精浆代谢组学可以识别 AS 的不同代谢模式，并通过为发现男性不育症的发病机制提供新的线索来帮助临床医生。