COVID-19 disrupts the blood-testis barrier through the induction of inflammatory cytokines and disruption of junctional proteins.
Tahmineh PeirouviAbbas AliaghaeiBahram Eslami FarsaniSanaz ZiaeipourVahid EbrahimiMehdi ForozeshMasoud GhadipashaGholam-Reza MahmoudiaslArefeh AryanNegin MoghimiShabnam AbdiAmir RaoofiMohammadhossein Kargar GodanehMohammad-Amin AbdollhifarPublished in: Inflammation research : official journal of the European Histamine Research Society ... [et al.] (2021)
Overall, the present study demonstrated that SARS-CoV-2 could induce the up-regulation of the pro-inflammatory cytokine and down-regulation of junctional proteins of the BTB, which can disrupt BTB and ultimately impair spermatogenesis.