2. Academic Validation
  3. Characterization of Human Sertoli Cells Infected With Monkeypox Virus

Characterization of Human Sertoli Cells Infected With Monkeypox Virus

  • J Med Virol. 2025 Nov;97(11):e70661. doi: 10.1002/jmv.70661.
Yongyang Sun 1 2,  Lina Liu 3,  Zhenjun Wang 3,  Nan Li 2,  Yongzhe Zhang 1 2,  Manlin He 2 4,  Shaowen Shi 2 4,  Xiaoxuan Nie 2 4,  Xiaohan Wang 2 5,  Wenhao Ren 1 2,  Yuxing Wang 1 2,  Huanjie Han 1 2,  Zirui Liu 2,  Chao Shang 2,  Qiwei Jiang 2,  Zhendong Guo 2,  Jianke Wang 4,  Wentao Yang 1,  Xiao Li 2,  Zongzheng Zhao 2
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 College of Veterinary Medicine, Jilin Provincial Engineering Research Center of Animal Probiotics, Jilin Provincial Key Laboratory of Animal Microecology and Healthy Breeding, Engineering Research Center of Microecological Vaccines (Drugs) for Major Animal Diseases, Ministry of Education, Jilin Agricultural University, Changchun, China.
  • 2 State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity, Key Laboratory of Jilin Province for Zoonosis Prevention and Control, Changchun Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Changchun, China.
  • 3 Institute of Special Animal and Plant Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Changchun, China.
  • 4 College of Veterinary Medicine, Hebei Agricultural University, Baoding, China.
  • 5 Guangxi University, Nanning, China.
PMID: 41181874 DOI: 10.1002/jmv.70661
Abstract

The monkeypox outbreak in May 2022 exhibited characteristics of sexual transmission. However, the Infection profile of MPXV in testicular tissue-associated cells and the host immune response remain poorly understood. This study investigated the susceptibility of Sertoli cells, which serve as the structural and functional core unit of seminiferous tubules in the testis, to MPXV, and the host gene expression profiles were analyzed. Following MPXV inoculation of Sertoli cells, viral load detection, transmission electron microscopy, and transcriptomic Sequencing revealed that MPXV induces lesions in Sertoli cells, accompanied by viral replication. The virus assembles and replicates by forming viral factories within the cytoplasm, ultimately releasing enveloped viral particles via exocytosis. Upon Infection, genes involved in stress response, inflammation pathways, and cell cycle regulation are upregulated. Additionally, genes associated with olfactory transduction pathways are activated, while Antiviral genes are suppressed, and virus-related genes linked to interferon receptors are highly expressed. This study demonstrates that MPXV infects human Sertoli cells and defines the accompanying host-response landscape, offering cell-level mechanistic clues that may be relevant to the rare occurrence of epididymo-orchitis in severe MPXV cases and guiding hypothesis-driven in-vivo validation.

Keywords

Sertoli cells; monkeypox virus; testis.

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