Taurine ameliorates damages induced by acute heat stress on porcine Sertoli cells.

Porcine Sertoli cells (SCs) treated by acute heat stress (HS) (43°C, 0.5 h) have significantly decreased taurine level. Taurine treatment of porcine SCs could promote proliferation, inhibit apoptosis, enhance mitochondrial function and modulate protein profile. However, whether taurine can alleviate damages of porcine SCs caused by acute HS is unknown. We here showed that treatment of porcine SCs using taurine (5.7 μM) for 12 h before acute HS (HS0.5-B12-Taurine) significantly rescued damages induced by acute HS (HS0.5-Control), including cell viability, proliferation, apoptosis, intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels, mitochondrial number, and lactate content. Transcriptome sequencing identified 18 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) (HS0.5-B12-Taurine vs. HS0.5-Control), mainly enriched in Gene Ontology (GO) terms of apoptosis, transmembrane transport, inward rectifier potassium channel activity, and 2 iron/2 sulfur cluster binding. RT-qPCR validated expression of 5 DEGs (GRIA4, KCNJ13, PTER, RAB44 and SLC12A8) and 7 other genes (AFF4, CXCL8, DENND5B, EPM2AIP1, SLC6A6, SSH2 and WNK3), most of them showing change trend consistent with RNA-seq results. Moreover, HDAC5 was confirmed to be significantly reduced in HS0.5-B12-Taurine (Western blotting: P < 0.05; Immunofluorescence: P < 0.01). Collectively, these findings suggest that taurine protects porcine SCs against damages induced by acute HS.