Protective Effect of Heparin on Epididymal Sperm Quality in Ischaemic-Reperfusion Injury of the Rat Testicle

Background: Testicular torsion is an urologic emergency that causes testicular damage and lead to reduced fertility or infertil-ity. It appears that the main pathophysiology of testicular tor-sion is ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury of the testis caused by the twisted spermatic cord and its release. Surgical detorsion is currently the only treatment and allows blood reperfusion. Even with successful surgical repair, loss of spermatogenesis and a significant increase in germ cell apoptosis may happen. Heparin is a naturally occurring anticoagulant produced by ba-sophils and mast cells. The protective effects of heparin and its derivatives in IR injury have been evaluated in different sys-tems including hepatic, gastrointestinal, urogenital systems and in pancreas, lungs and heart but no previous study has evalu-ated the effect of heparin in the prevention of IR injury in rat epididymal sperm quality.Materials and Methods: Eighteen Wistar Albino male rats weighing 250–300 g were divided into three groups: sham (group S, n = 6); torsion/detorsion (group T/DT, n = 6), and heparin pretreatment (group Hep, n = 6). The left testes were ro-tated 720° clockwise for 2 hours in the rats of the torsion– detor-sion group(group T/DT). Rats in the treatment group underwent the same surgical procedure as the torsion–detorsion group but were also given heparin 800 IU/kg (Hep group) by an intraperi-toneal route 30 min prior to detorsion. In sham group(group s), the left testes were brought out through the incision and were placed back in the scrotum. After 2 hours of reperfusion a left orchiectomy was performed and the sperm was collected from the epididymis and sperm characteristics such as sperm motil-ity, sperm vitality, sperm count and sperm morphology were examinedResults: Heparin significantly enhanced sperm motility and normal morphology of sperms but sperm vitality and sperm count did not differ significantly in Hep group in comparison with T/DT group.Conclusion: Our results suggest that heparin treatment has a protective role on IR-induced testicular injury.

Keywords:

Testicular Torsion , Sperm , Heparin