The effects of vitamin D on adropin and apoptosis in experimental diabetic rat testis

THE EFFECTS OF VITAMIN D ON ADROPIN AND APOPTOSIS IN EXPERIMENTAL DIABETIC RAT TESTIS Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a metabolic disease caused by deficiency of insulin secretion. In this study, protective effects of vitamin D against adropin and apoptosis on testis tissue of streptozotosin-induced experimental diabetic rats were investigated. Eight-ten-week old 41 Wistar albino rats were divided into five groups of seven rats. No treatment was applied to control group. A single dose of 0.1 M sodium citrate was injected intraperitoneally to buffer group. A daily dose of 200 IU/day vitamin D was orally treated to vitamin D group. A single dose of 50 mg/kg STZ in 0.1 M sodium citrate buffer was intraperitoneally injected to diabetic group. The rats with glucose level of higher than 250 mg/dl were considered as diabetic and glucose levels were recorded at the beginning and end of the experiment. A single dose of 50 mg/kg STZ in 0.1 M sodium citrate was intraperitoneally injected to Diabetes+Vitamin D group. After induction of diabetes, a daily dose of 200 IU/day vitamin D was orally treated to Diabetes+Vitamin D group. At the end of the experiment, all rats were decapitated under anaesthesia and testis tissues were removed immediately for immunohistochemical analysis of TUNEL staining. Moreover, biochemical analyses for blood serum samples of all rats were conducted. TAS and TOS, tissue and serum adropin levels were found to be statistically significant comparing to control group. TUNEL and immunohistochemical reactivity levels were similar for Control, Buffer and Vitamin D groups while increased for diabetic group and decreased for Diabetes+Vitamin D group. In conclusion, it was proved in this experimental study that DM causes tissue damage on testis and there is a parallelism between adropin level and DM whereas vitamin D, which is an antioxidant, has decreased this damage relatively. Consequently, it can be stated that vitamin D may be used as an alternative treatment for DM in future. Keywords: DM, adropin, vitamin D, apoptosis.