Protective Effects of Scutellarin on Type II Diabetes Mellitus-Induced Testicular Damages Related to Reactive Oxygen Species/Bcl-2/Bax and Reactive Oxygen Species/Microcirculation/Staving Pathway in Diabetic Rat

Abstract

The goal of our study is to evaluate the effect of Scutellarin on type II diabetes-induced testicular disorder and show the mechanism of Scutellarin's action. We used streptozotocin and high-fat diet to establish type II diabetic rat model. TUNEL and haematoxylin and eosin staining were used to evaluate the testicular apoptotic cells and morphologic changes. Immunohistochemical staining was used to measure the expression level of vascular endothelial growth factor and blood vessel density in testes. Oxidative stress in testes and epididymis was tested by fluorescence spectrophotometer and ELISA. The expression of Bcl-2/Bax and blood flow rate in testicular vessels were measured by western blot and Doppler. Our results for the first time showed that hyperglycemia induced apoptotic cells and morphologic impairments in testes of rats, while administration of Scutellarin can significantly inhibit these damages. This effect of Scutellarin is controlled by two apoptotic triggers: ROS/Bcl-2/Bax and ROS/microcirculation/starving pathway.

Diabetes mellitus-induced male reproductive impairment: The role of natural products: A review

“…Studies using T1 (Kanter et al, 2013;Al-Roujeaie et al, 2016) and T2 (Long et al, 2015) diabetic rats have yielded similar results, indicating that testicular histology is negatively affected irrespective of the type of DM. Studies using STZ (Kanter et al, 2013;Al-Roujeaie et al, 2016), alloxan (Shalaby and Hamowieh, 2010;Hafez, 2010) and BB (Cameron et al, 1990) T1DM models have all reported varying degrees of morphological abnormalities, comparable to the study using T2DM (STZ + High fats diet) model (Long et al, 2015). Mean Johnsen's score, a measure of the degree of spermatogenesis, is significantly lower in STZ-induced T1DM model (Kanter et al, 2012;.…”

“…Mohasseb et al (2011) have reported an increased activity of the executioner caspase (caspase-3) in the testis of STZ-induced diabetic rats. Upregulation of the pro-apoptotic protein (Bax) and down-regulation of the anti-apoptotic protein (Bcl-2) have been reported in T1 (Ghosh et al, 2014) and T2 (Long et al, 2015) diabetic rats, with an increase in expression of caspases 8 and 3 (Jiang et al, 2013) in T1 diabetic rats. Zhao et al (2011) have reported up-regulation of the pro-apoptotic genes, p38 and p53 in the testis of STZ-induced T1DM rats.…”

“…Spermatogenesis is negatively affected when steroidogenesis is suppressed, as observed in DM. Studies using whole plant extracts (Mallick et al, 2010;Hafez 2010;Gonzales et al, 2013) and compounds of plant origin (Khaki et al, 2009;Roy et al, 2013) have shown a significant improvement in spermatogenesis, in which sperm count, normal morphology, viability and motility are significantly increased (Tables 1 and 2). Furthermore, curcumin (Kanter et al, 2013) and quercetin (Kanter et al, 2012) have improved spermatogenesis, as shown by an increase in mean testicular biopsy score after 8 weeks of treatment.…”

“…Nevertheless, it is also important to monitor the effects of the disease on reproductive function. Several complications have been reported following DM, with the implication of oxidative stress (anti-oxidant/oxidant imbalance) as the major factor that is responsible for these complications (La Vignera et al, 2008). This oxidative stress in the reproductive tissues forms the basis of reproductive impairments observed in individuals with DM (Mallidis et al, 2011).…”

“…DM induces molecular alterations which negatively affect sperm quality and function as well as fertility (Mallidis et al, 2011). La Vignera et al, (2008) in a retrospective study reported the prevalence of subfertility to be 51 % among patients with DM. Another study on infertility among DM patients reported a prevalence of 35.1 % in men with type 2 DM (Bener et al, 2009).…”