Age-Dependent Effects of Chronic Unpredictable Stress on Male Reproductive Organs in Rats Chronic Unpredictable Stress on Male Reproduction
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Abstract
Context: Stress occurs in response to external harmful factors and can have detrimental effects on organ functions.
Aims: Some suggest that stress has major consequences for the male reproductive system and infertility. The present study focused on the effects of Chronic Unpredictable Stress (CUS) on serum testosterone level, tissue Promyelocytic Leukemia Zinc Finger (PLZF) protein, and histopathological changes in testicular tissue.
Methods: In this study, we separated 32 Wistar rats into four groups (group 1: young control, group 2: young stress, group 3: old control, and group 4: old stress). The stress groups underwent CUS, rats in the stress groups were subjected to one unpredictable stressor daily for eight consecutive weeks to simulate chronic stress exposure. After the experiment, we measured serum testosterone using the Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) test, PLZF changes in testicular tissue by immunohistochemistry (IHC), and testicular tissue changes by hematoxylin and eosin staining (H&E). We analyzed data by two-way ANOVA and the Bonferroni supplementary test.
Results: The results showed that serum testosterone levels in the stress groups were significantly lower than in the control groups. Also, the population percentage of PLZF-expressing cells in testicular tissues was lower in the stress group. Histological results showed that spermatogonia populations decreased in both stress groups. We saw sloughing of seminiferous tubules in the old stress group which wasn’t seen in the younger ones (P <0.05).
Conclusions: CUS reduces testosterone production rate, similar to testicular tissue disorders, so it would have damaging effects on fertility.
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