Research articleHeat stress-induced autophagy promotes lactate secretion in cultured immature boar Sertoli cells by inhibiting apoptosis and driving SLC2A3, LDHA, and SLC16A1 expression

This study aimed to determine whether heat stress (HS) could induce autophagy in immature boar Sertoli cells (SCs) and test whether HS-induced autophagy could regulate lactate secretion by SCs. Cultured immature boar SCs were incubated at 43 °C for 30 minutes. The ratio of LC3B-II to LC3B-I and the mRNA transcript levels of LC3B showed time-dependent changes 0 to 48 hours after HS treatment, which peaked at 24 hours and increased by 30.25% or 260%, respectively, compared with control SCs. The density of autolysosomes, which were labeled with a red dye, was higher at 24 hours than at any other time point. However, the apoptosis rate, cleavage of caspase-3, and mRNA transcript levels of CASP3 (caspase-3) at 24 hours after HS were lower than at 12 hours. Furthermore, lactate secretion, and mRNA transcript levels of SLC2A3 (GLUT3), LDHA (LDHA), and SLC16A1 (MCT1) also showed time-dependent changes with a peak at 24 hours. In addition, LY294002 (20 μM) significantly inhibited changes in ratio of LC3B-II to LC3B-I, LC3B mRNA transcript levels, and autolysosome formation. It also resulted in significantly less lactate secretion and increased apoptosis but showed no effect on B-cell lymphoma-2 expression in heat-treated immature SCs. These findings indicated that HS-induced autophagy regulates lactate secretion by inhibiting apoptosis and increasing mRNA transcript and protein levels of SLC2A3, LDHA, and SLC16A1, which suggests that HS-induced autophagy may enhance lactate secretion by SCs.