Background: Testicular torsion is very common in urological emergencies, which damages testicular tissue and reproduction. Safranal possesses high antioxidant properties and can efficiently inhibit ischemia/reperfusion injury (IRI) in the hippocampus, cerebral and skeletal muscle tissues. Therefore, this study was done to evaluate the effect of Safranal on testicles after IRI.
Methods: This research was performed on 48 male adult Wistar rats. They were randomly divided into six groups: control, testicular torsion/detorsion (TD), torsion and detorsion/Safranal (0.1, 0.5 mg/ kg, ip), and Safranal control groups (0.1, 0.5 mg/ kg, ip). Under anesthesia, the left testicular torsion was done for four hours, 30 minutes before detorsion a single dose of safranal was injected. After 24 hours of reperfusion, oxidative markers, estradiol, testosterone, LH hormone, sperm parameters, testicular histopathology, and gene expression evaluations were measured on blood and tissue samples.
Results: The height of the seminiferous epithelia (HE) was improved in the TD groups receiving safranal (TD+Sa 0.1, 0.5), the number of sperms was significantly increased and abnormal sperms were significantly lower than in the TD group. Also, the expression of the Bax gene decreased significantly compared with the TD group. Superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) improved in the safranal receiving 0.1 mg/kg rats. The levels of estradiol, testosterone, and LH in the TD+Sa groups showed a low improvement compared with the TD group, although it was not significant.
Conclusions: These data suggest that safranal may protect testicles from IRI through antioxidant and antiapoptotic pathways.