REVIEW article
Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Systems Microbiology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1577245
This article is part of the Research TopicInvestigating the Role of Microorganisms in Ecosystems and Their Interactions with the Humans, Animals, Plants, and Environment InterfaceView all 10 articles
Microbiome: a double-edged sword in male reproduction
Provisionally accepted
- Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao, China
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Male infertility is caused by various factors, including lifestyle, the environment, health, medical resources and infections by pathogenic microorganism. There are trillions of microorganisms in the human body, and various areas of the body, including the male reproductive system. Numerous investigations have found bacteria in the male reproductive system. The male reproductive system can become infected with bacteria, which can lead to a number of other reproductive diseases. Conversely, gut microbiota (GM) plays significant role for the production of key molecules through microbial metabolism. These molecules have nutrition, immunity, and hormone-related functions and promote the male reproductive system via the circulatory system. GM controls testicular immunity to protect the spermatogenic environment and aids in maintaining the testes' fundamental structure. In this review, we cover the historical and present research on the relationship between the testicular and semen microbiota and male infertility. We discuss the both positive and negative role of various types microorganism including viruses, bacteria and fungi on male fertility and infertility. Recent research suggests that some bacterial species may have an impact on male fertility. There is widespread agreement that several pathogenic bacteria species have a deleterious effect on the sperm count, motility, morphology, and DNA integrity among other semen parameters. On the other hand, probiotics bacteria such as Lactobacillus spp, shown protective effects on semen quality and quantity parameters. Postbiotics gained significant attention for their potential health benefits. Thus, we discuss the effect of postbiotics including structural elements, proteins, lipids, DNA and polysaccrides on male fertility. The potential applications of microbiome to male fertility is enormous and more exciting, consequently, there is a need for larger studies with uniform microbial sequencing and meta analysis are indispensable.
Keywords: microbiome, human reproduction, male infertility, male fertility, Probiotics, Postbiotics
Received: 15 Feb 2025; Accepted: 27 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Feng, Ji, Zhang, Dong and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Yanni Feng, Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao, China
Xi-Feng Zhang, Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.