An examination of the effects of ethyl pyruvate on the rat testis in an experimental diabetes model

Objective: We aimed to investigate the damage caused by Diabetes Mellitus (DM) in the testis structure in male rats with DM model and to investigate histochemical (Hematoxylin-Eosin, Masson Trichrom, Periodic Acid Schiff (PAS), immunohistochemical (Active Caspase-3 and TUNEL) and biochemical [malondialdehyde (MDA), glutathione (GSH) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx)] the effect of Rthyl Pyruvate (EP) in this damage. Method: In the study, the experimental groups were arranged as follows. Group 1. Control Group: No substance was applied, it has used for basal values. On the 18th day after starting the experiment all subjects were sacrificed and testicular tissue samples was taken. Group 2. Ethyl pyruvate group: Subjects were given 50 mg / kg Ethyl pyruvate by intraperitoneal route twice daily from day 3 to day 18 of the experiment. They were sacrificed on the 18th day. Group 3. Diabetes Group: Subjects were given a single dose of 45 mg / kg streptozocin (STZ) by i.p on the first day. They were sacrificed on the 18th day. Group 4. Diabetes and Ethyl Pyruvate Group: The subjects were given a single dose of 45 mg / kg STZ on the first day by i.p. 50 mg / kg Ethyl pyruvate were given i.p. twice a day from the 3rd day of the experiment to the 18th day from the beginning of the experiment. They were sacrificed on the 18th day. Hematoxylin-Eosin, Masson Trichrome, Periodic Acid Schiff immunohistochemistry in the right testis from subjects for histological examinations; TUNEL and Active Caspase-3 were done. GSH, GPx, MDA levels in the left testis from subjects were examined for biochemical assays. Result: During the histochemical examinations, normal testicular structure was observed in the control group. In the diabetes group; basal membrane thickening, basal membrane undulation, vacuolization in seminiferous tubules, germ cell loss and increased interstitial inland connective tissue growth were observed Hematoxylin-Eosin, Masson Tricrom, PAS stainings and Johnsen scoring were performed on ethyl pyruvate and diabetic ethyl pyruvate groups, and testis structure was observed close to normal. Immunohistochemically, TUNEL and caspase-3 staining were performed to determine positive cell activation in testicular tissue specimens. According to the control group, we found that the number of apoptotic cells in diabetic group was significantly increased. We observed a significant decrease in the number of apoptotic cells in the diabetic ethyl pyruvate group when comparing diabetic group with diabetic ethyl pyruvate group. In the biochemical studies, GPx, GSH and MDA were evaluated. We found that MDA significantly increased in the diabetic group compared to the control group, while GSH and GPx decreased significantly. We have observed a significant reduction in the ethyl pyruvate and diabetic ethyl pyruvate groups when comparing the diabetes group with the ethyl pyruvate and diabetic ethyl pyruvate groups for MDA values. In addition, GSH and GPx values of ethyl pyruvate and diabetic ethyl pyruvate groups were significantly higher than diabetic group. Conclusion: In our study, we observed that the testicular tissue damage caused by STZ was reduced by ethyl pyruvate treatment.