在感染者精液内长期存在并通过性接触传播是寨卡病毒（Zika virus, ZIKV）不同于其他蚊媒病毒的鲜明特性，为此，ZIKV感染与男性生殖健康倍受关注。以往研究大都集中在ZIKV感染引起小鼠睾丸及生育能力的损害，对生殖同样重要的附睾变化关注较少。课题组前期研究表明：ZIKV感染过程中附睾炎及炎症因子的增加，较睾丸更为显著，特别是IL-6和IFN-λ增加最为明显。推测ZIKV感染可引起附睾炎症，改变精子成熟所需的微环境，最终导致精子受损和生育能力下降。为此，本项目拟利用I型干扰素受体敲除的A6小鼠和附睾上皮细胞系，揭示ZIKV感染所致附睾炎的特点；炎症对附睾紧密连接和上皮分泌功能的影响及其机制；IFN-λ能否减轻近期和远期的ZIKV附睾炎，从而保护生殖健康。期望本研究有助于深入阐明ZIKV对附睾和生殖健康损害的分子机制，并为临床应用IFN-λ防治ZIKV对男性生殖系统的损害提供新思路。

Unlike other mosquito-borne viruses, Zika virus (ZIKV) is distinctively characterized as its long-term presence in semen of infected people and transmission through sexual contact, which attracted considerable attention on interaction between ZIKV infection and male reproductive health. Previously, a lot of studies have shown that ZIKV infection damage testis and affect the long-term fertility. However, there is little study focusing on epididymal injury caused by ZIKV, which is also important for maturation of sperm and male reproduction. Our preliminary experiments indicated that both inflammatory and cytokine levels were significantly obvious in epididymis than those of testis, especially the increase of interferon (IFN)-λ and Interleukin (IL)-6. Therefore, it is speculated that ZIKV infection can cause epididymitis and alter the microenvironment required for sperm maturation, which lead to damage sperm and fertility. In view of this, this project intends to use A6 (knock out of I type interferon receptor) mice and epididymal epithelial cell line to reveal the characteristics of epididymitis caused by ZIKV infection; the effect and the mechanism of inflammation on epididymal tight junction and epithelial secretion; whether IFN-λ can reduce epididymitis caused by ZIKV infection. This study not only help to further illustrate the molecular mechanism underlying the ZIKV-epididymitis and damage of reproductive health, but also provide a new insight into the clinical medication of IFN-λ in prevention of damage of the male reproductive system caused by ZIKV infection.