Trolox is more successful than allopurinol to reduce degenerative effects of testicular ischemia/reperfusion injury in rats.

Summary Introduction Reperfusion surgery following testicular ischemia is a reproductive health threatening status and may result with organ dysfunction in men. The high level of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and cease of blood flow to the testis is the most important cause of this ailment. Until today, numerous experimental studies reported that antioxidants might be efficient to alleviate oxidative stress induced organ dysfunction. For this purpose, in this study, we have investigated the protective effects of xanthine oxidase (XO) inhibitor, allopurinol, and ROS scavenger, trolox, in a comparative perspective in testicular ischemia reperfusion injury subjected rats. Materials and methods Twenty-eight adult male Sprague Dawley rats were divided into four groups of seven animals in each; control, ischemia/reperfusion (I/R), allopurinol and trolox. The rats in control group did not receive any application. Animals in I/R, allopurinol and trolox groups were subjected to 2 hours testicular reperfusion injury following 5 hours ischemia, and intraperitoneally 1 ml isotonic, 200 mg/kg allopurinol and 50 mg/kg trolox were administered 30 min prior reperfusion. At the end of experiment, all animals were sacrificed and blood serum malondialdehyde (MDA) levels were measured. Histological sections were obtained from the testis and stained with Hematoxylin and Eosin (H&E), proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) and cleaved caspase-3. Apoptotic index was evaluated with TUNEL Assay. Results Severe morphological degenerations, increased serum MDA, cleaved caspase-3 and TUNEL Assay positivity rate, but reduced PCNA positivity rate was observed in ischemia and reperfusion group. Morphological degenerations, MDA level, apoptotic index and PCNA positive cell rate were slightly alleviated in allopurinol administered animals compared with ischemia and reperfusion group, but protection with trolox was more successful and the results of the analysis were similar to the control group. Discussion Ischemia leading testicular torsion is a reproductive health affecting problem and current surgical treatment methods might be insufficient to recover testis. Various types of ROS generating mechanisms in cell limiting protective potency of allopurinol, and administration of different ROS mechanism inhibitors might be more effective. However, our results indicate that free radical scavenger trolox might be a candidate drug to alleviate degenerative effects of testicular ischemia reperfusion injury. Conclusions This is the first study that demonstrates antioxidant trolox was more successful than XO inhibitor allopurinol to protect testis against ischemia and reperfusion injury in rats.