ArticleScientific reports2022
Effects of varicocele and microsurgical varicocelectomy on the metabolites in semen.
Article in Scientific reports, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed, 7 citations in OpenAlex.
- Varicocelectomy in men with varicocele-associated infertility: a narrative review of semen quality and reproductive outcomes.Translational andrology and urology · 2026Review
- Microsurgical varicocelectomy versus laparoscopic surgery versus embolization for varicocele: a retrospective cost-effectiveness analysis.BMC urology · 2026Article
- Integrated seminal plasma metabolomics and lipidomics profiling highlight distinctive signature of varicocele patients with male infertility.Asian journal of andrology · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
14 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The influence of varicocele and microsurgical varicocelectomy on semen quality remains unclear. Few studies have investigated the relationship between semen metabolism and the abnormalities in reproductive function caused by varicocele, however, there is no study on the changes of semen metabolism after microsurgical varicocelectomy. Here, we used the non-targeted and targeted metabolic analysis to investigate the different metabolites in seminal plasma within normal, varicocele, and varicocelectomy groups. We clearly showed that varicocele significantly affects semen metabolism, and microsurgical varicocelectomy can reverse this metabolic abnormality. Moreover, we characterized the landscape of three dipeptides in the seminal plasma of patients with varicocele that have not been identified previously in human tissues or biofluids. Interestingly, the levels of these three dipeptides decreased after microsurgical varicocelectomy coincident with an improvement in semen quality. Western blotting confirmed the downregulation of DPEP3 (dipeptidase 3) in the varicocele group and the upregulation of DPEP3 in the varicocelectomy group. Furthermore, we found that eight metabolites may be helpful to distinguish varicocele patients from normal subjects. Our results may be applied to earlier diagnosis or to predict the outcome of microsurgery for varicocele.
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