Melatonin mitigates Chloroquine-induced defects in porcine immature Sertoli cells

Chloroquine (CQ) could function as a lysosomotropic inhibitor to impair the autophagy-lysosome pathway, and is widely used to treat malarial, tumor and recently COVID-19. However, the effect of CQ treatment on porcine immature Sertoli cells (iSCs) remains unclear.;Here we showed that CQ treatment reduced iSCs viability in a dose-dependent manner. CQ treatment (20µM) of iSCs for 36h could elevate oxidative stress, damage mitochondrial function and promote apoptosis. Melatonin (MT) (10nM) could partially rescue CQ-induced phenotypic defects. Transcriptome profiling (RNA-seq) identified 1611 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) (776 up- and 835 down-regulated) (20µM CQ vs. DMSO control group), mainly involved in MAPK cascade, cell proliferation/apoptosis, HIF-1, PI3K-Akt and lysosome signaling pathways. In contrast, MT addition identified only 467 (224 up- and 243 down-regulated) DEGs (CQ+MT vs. DMSO), enriched in cell cycle, regulation of apoptotic process, lysosome and reproduction, respectively.Collectively, CQ treatment could impair porcine iSC viability by deranging apoptosis- and autophagy related signaling pathways, which could be partially rescued by MT supplementation. The cells were seeded at a density of approximately 1×105 cells/mL, and cultured for 6h, before treated with Chloroquine (CQ, HY-17589, MedChem Express, New Jersey, USA)) at 20μM and 20μM CQ + 10nM MT(Melatonin, M5250, Sigma-Aldrich).