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| Author(s): |
Davi Abeid Pontes
Total Authors: 1
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| Document type: | Master's Dissertation |
| Press: | Campinas, SP. |
| Institution: | Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Biologia |
| Defense date: | 2008-02-14 |
| Examining board members: |
Wilma De Grava Kempinas;
Catarina Segreti Porto;
Isabel Cristina Cherici Camargo
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| Advisor: | Wilma De Grava Kempinas |
| Abstract | |
Diabetes mellitus is usually related with some kind of sexual dysfunction, promoting infertility in humans as well as in experimental models. In a prior work from our laboratory, male rats, which had a diabetic-induced state of hyperglycemia caused by streptozotocin administration, demonstrated reduced fertility through several parameters analyzed. The present study aimed at investigating the mechanisms involved and the role of testosterone in the process. Male rats were randomly allocated in 3 experimental groups: control, hyperglycemic (streptozotocin), and hyperglycemic with hormone replacement (streptozotocin+testosterone) and the following parameters were analyzed: reproductive and spermatic parameters, hormone levels, sexual behavior, contractility of vas deferens in vitro, sexual behavior parameters and the number of sperm ejaculated in utero. The vas deferens of diabetic animals was hypersensitive to methoxamine, a synthetic agonist of _1 adrenoceptors. The same animals showed the following results: alterations in sexual behavior and lack of sperm ejaculated, reduction in plasma testosterone levels, decreased body weight and epididymis, seminal vesicles, ventral prostate and vas deferens weights, loss of germ cells in the lumen and apparent epithelial disarrange in seminiferous tubules, and accelerated sperm transit time in the epididymis. The data presented herein indicate that the mechanisms underlying the reduced fertility through natural mating observed in diabetic rats involve impairment of the spermatogenic process, as well as a dysregulation of the male reproductive axis, together with evidence for problems in the sperm maturation process, which has as a complicant factor the impairment of the ejaculatory function, dependent on the vas deferens smooth muscle contractility. Androgen replacement was not totally capable of reversing the damage caused by diabetes on the male reproductive system of adult rats (AU) | |