Fig. 2: Nicotine exposure induces transcriptomic alterations in the testis. | Communications Biology

Fig. 2: Nicotine exposure induces transcriptomic alterations in the testis.

From: Mechanisms and reversibility of nicotine-induced spermatogenesis impairment and DNA methylation changes

Fig. 2

A Uniform manifold approximation and projection (UMAP) visualization of all 47,775 cells after quality control. The dot color indicates cell types. Sertoli Sertoli cells, Mes mesenchymal cells, Immune immune cells, Leydig Leydig cells, SPG spermatogonia, SCyte_LZ leptotene and zygotene spermatocytes, SCyte_eP early pachytene spermatocytes, SCyte_lP late pachytene and meiosis II spermatocytes, rSTid round spermatids, eSTid elongating spermatids, Sperm mature sperm. B Dot plot showing the expression levels of marker genes in each cell type. C The percentage of various cell types in CON and NIC mice. The dashed box represents somatic and late spermatogenic cells (eSTid_4 and sperm). D Bar plot displaying the number of upregulated and downregulated differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Gene ontology (GO) analyses of upregulated (E) and downregulated (F) DEGs in SCyte_lP cells. G Heatmap demonstrating the relative expression levels of selected genes linked to respiratory chain complexes and transition proteins/protamines in all germ cell types. Quantitative PCR-based detection of gene expression levels of upregulated (H) and downregulated (I) DEGs in testicular tissue across the three groups (n = 5 mice per group). Data are represented as mean ± SEM. All statistical analyses were performed using ANOVA followed by Bonferroni’s multiple comparisons test, ***p < 0.001; **p < 0.01; *p < 0.05; ns not significant.

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