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Taurine Recovers Testicular Steroidogenesis and Spermatogenesis in Streptozotocin-Induced Diabetic Rats

  • Conference paper
Taurine 10

Part of the book series: Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology ((AEMB,volume 975))

Abstract

A great deal of investigations have verified that diabetic male reproductive impairment is associated with the dysfunction of testicular steroidogenesis and spermatogenesis resulted from insulin deficiency and hyperglycaemia-induced oxidative stress. It has been identified taurine is profitable for diabetes mellitus and diabetic implications through its insulin-like and islet cells protective activity. Furthermore, our previous studies found that taurine could increase testicular antioxidative ability, stimulate the endocrine activity of hypothalamic-pituitary-testicular axis, elevate testosterone level, raise sperm quality, suppress the deterioration of testicular function. Accordingly, we hypothesized that taurine may have beneficial effects on testicular dysfunction under diabetic mellitus status. Here, we investigated the effects of taurine on testicular steroidogenesis and spermatogenesis in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced type I diabetic rats. We observed that taurine treatment can markedly increase the body and testis weights, testicular SDH and G6PDH activities, decrease the serum fasting glucose concentration of diabetic rats. Serum contents of GnRH, LH, FSH, T, and testicular StAR, 3β-HSD, 17β-HSD mRNA expression levels were also obviously raised by taurine administration, indicating that taurine can improve testicular steroidogenesis in diabetic animals. Finally, we found taurine supplementation effectively elevated the sperm count and motility, reduced sperm abnormality, suggesting that taurine can increase the testicular spermatogenesis function of diabetic rat. In summary, the present data indicated that taurine can rescue the function of testicular steroidogenesis and spermatogenesis in STZ-induced type I diabetic rats possibly by increasing the endocrine activity of hypothalamic-pituitary-testicular axis.

†These authors have contributed equally to this work.

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Abbreviations

17β-HSD:

17β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase

3β-HSD:

3β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase

FSH:

Follicle-stimulating hormone

G6PDH:

Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase

GnRH:

Gonadotropin-releasing hormone

LH:

Luteinizing hormone

SDH:

Sorbitol dehydrogenase

StAR:

Steroidogenic acute regulatory protein

STZ:

Streptozotocin

T:

Testosterone

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Acknowledgments

This project was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31272522, 31402160 and 31004042) and Program for Liaoning Excellent Talents in University (No. LJQ2014073).

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Liaoning Provincial Key Laboratory of Zoonosis, College of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang, Liaoning, 110866, People’s Republic of China

      Hong Liu, Shumei Lin, Qiufeng Lv, Qunhui Yang, Gaofeng Wu, Jianmin Hu & Jiancheng Yang

    2. Experimental Animal Center, Liaoning University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shenyang, Liaoning, 110847, People’s Republic of China

      Hong Liu

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    1. Hong Liu
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    Correspondence to Jiancheng Yang .

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    Editors and Affiliations

    1. Department of Life Sciences, University of Seoul, Seoul, South Korea

      Dong-Hee Lee  & Ha Won Kim  & 

    2. College of Medicine, University of South Alabama, Mobile, Alabama, USA

      Stephen W. Schaffer

    3. Department of Developmental Neurobiology, NY State Institute for Basic Research in Developmental Disabilities, New York, USA

      Eunkyue Park

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    Liu, H. et al. (2017). Taurine Recovers Testicular Steroidogenesis and Spermatogenesis in Streptozotocin-Induced Diabetic Rats. In: Lee, DH., Schaffer, S.W., Park, E., Kim, H.W. (eds) Taurine 10. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 975. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-1079-2_62

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