Accepted_test

Puberty is a hormone-dependent period in which spermatogenesis begins in the testicles. The age of pubertal onset, the pubertal progression and the age of sexual maturation varies in healthy children/adolescents. There is evidence that spermatogenesis is accompanied by dramatic changes in the profile of small non-coding RNAs in sperm (Nicholls et al). The aim of our study was to prospectively investigate the relationship of pubertal trajectories with the reproductive outcomes, semen quality, serum hormone level and sperm sncRNA profile in healthy young adults. The secondary aim was to investigate the sperm sncRNA profile by semen quality and serum hormones.

We used group-based trajectory models (GBTMs) to identify subgroups of boys, subjects of prospective cohort Russian Children’s Study, who followed similar pubertal trajectories from ages 8 till 19 years based on annual testicular volume. Sperm samples collected at 18-19 years were used for RNA isolation, library preparation and RNA-sequencing (n=47). We used the previously constructed pipeline for small RNA seq data analysis (Bezuglov et al). It is based on mapping reads on the reference genome and assigning them to RNA species using ITAS - integrated annotation of microRNA, piRNA and mature tRNA, created by our team earlier (Stupnikov et al).

We found that slower pubertal trajectory was associated with lower birth weight, lower BMI and TV at semen collection, lower TPMSC and sperm concentration and higher serum FSH. We found some sperm sncRNA as promising candidate biomarkers of pubertal trajectories and reproductive outcomes in young adulthood.