Open Access

ARTICLE

Ala-Gln improves varicocele-induced testicular injury by increasing HSP70 and antioxidant activity in male rats

LEI YU^1,2, ZHEN FAN³, HONGQIANG WANG², WENXIAN LI⁴, TAO JING², QIANG LI², SHENQIAN LI², PEITAO WANG², XUJUN XUAN^1,*

1 Center for Reproductive Medicine, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan, 250100, China
2 Department of Andrology, The Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, Qingdao, 266003, China
3 Department of Ophthalmology, Qingdao Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine (Qingdao Hiser Hospital), Qingdao, 266034, China
4 Department of Urology, The Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, Qingdao, 266003, China

* Address correspondence to: Xujun Xuan,

BIOCELL 2021, 45(2), 323-329. https://doi.org/10.32604/biocell.2021.09034

Received 16 November 2019; Accepted 12 August 2020; Issue published 19 February 2021

Abstract

This worked aimed to test the hypothesis that L-alanyl-L-glutamine (Ala-Gln) improves the varicocele-induced testicular injury, which causes male infertility. For this purpose, fifty adult male Wistar rats received the varicocele (VC) surgery at the left renal vein. Biomarkers were determined 2, 4, and 8 weeks after VC (n = 10/each detection). Four weeks after VC, rats received Ala-Gln (1.125 g/kg) treatment with and or saline for 1 week (n = 10/each group). Rats in the sham group were also detected for biomarkers at 2, 4, and 8 weeks (n = 10/each detection). VC caused testicular injury detected by hematoxylin–eosin (H&E) staining, immunohistochemistry, and TUNEL assay. HSP70 mRNA was detected quantitative RT-PCR, SOD, and CAT by nitroblue tetrazolium (NBT) method and 8-OHDG by ELISA. The results showed that varicocele induced injury in the testes. The weight of the left testes was lower than that of the right testes in VC-bearing rats (p < 0.01). The relative numbers of sustentacular and spermatogenic cells were decreased after VC (p < 0.01). In sham-4 wk, VC-4wk, VC-5wk and Ala-Gln groups, the apoptosis index was 5.10 ± 1.14, 13.22 ± 3.63, 33.62 ± 3.56 and 22.33 ± 2.61, relative level of HSP70 mRNA 1.00 ± 0.12, 0.53 ± 0.05, 0.51 ± 0.04 and 1.62 ± 0.15 fold, SOD 16.4 ± 0.23, 13.4 ± 0.17, 10.01 ± 1.06 and 19.53 ± 2.26 U/mg protein, CAT 2.16 ± 0.31, 1.07 ± 0.28, and 1.31 ± 0.26 and 3.46 ± 0.71 U/mg, 8-OHDG 5.23 ± 0.67, 6.81 ± 0.78, 7.16 ± 1.22 and 4.14 ± 0.73 pg/μg DNA, respectively (p < 0.01). Our results suggest that Ala-Gln prevented the VC-induced testicular injury. We have firstly reported that Ala-Gln protects against varicocele-induced testicular injuries by up-regulation of HSP70 and antioxidants, SOD and CAT, and down-regulation of oxidant 8-OHDG, resulting in reducing apoptosis in the testis.

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