Protective effects of Vitamin A on the testicular tissue of mice treated with Prednisolone

Immunosuppressive drugs cause destructive changes and atrophy of seminiferous tubules, decrease in sperm count and motility and sperm deformities in epididymal ducts, resulting in male infertility. Therefore, in this study, the role of vitamin A in preventing these effects was on spermatogenesis in male rats.

 In this study using 40 NMRI mice in 5 groups of 8 for 8 weeks including control group, prednisolone control group 1.5 mg/kg, prednisolone control group 2.5 mg/kg (intramuscular) And 2 groups treated with vitamin A50 mg/kg (gavage). Finally, testicular tissue and sperm parameters were examined and the obtained data were analyzed using ANOVA software.

 Prednisolone treatment had an effect on body weight, testicular weight to body weight ratio, testicular seminiferous tubules diameter and serum testosterone concentration and a significant decrease (P <0.05). It also affected other parameters including sperm motility and testicular tissue cells and caused a so-called significant decrease in surface area (p <0.05) and caused a significant decrease in other parameters such as sperm count, percentage of live sperm.

This study shows that prednisolone increases the process of spermatogenesis by increasing oxidative stress and apoptosis, and vitamin A prevents the damaging effects of prednisolone on spermatogenesis and testicular tissue by reducing oxidative stress and inhibiting apoptosis.