The Study Of Protective Effect On Curcumin Against Testicular Injury Induced By Formaldehyde In Mice

As a common harmful substance,formaldehyde can affect the male reproductive system.Curcumin is a natural active ingredient extracted from the rhizome of Curcuma genus of Zingiberaceae.It has been proved to have many pharmacological activities,such as antioxidant,anti-inflammatory and anti-apoptotic.In this study,the protective effect and related mechanism of curcumin were studied by establishing a testicular tissue injury model induced by formaldehyde in mice.METHODS:Sixty male ICR mice were randomly divided into five groups,which were control group（saline）,model group（50 mg/kg formaldehyde）and curcumin low-dose,medium-dose and high-dose groups（50 mg/kg,100 mg/kg and 200 mg/kg）,there were12 mice in each group.After 14 days of intraperitoneal injection,all mice were dissected and bilateral testicular tissues were removed for the detection of histomorphology and molecular biological indicators.In Results:Compared with the control group,the relative weights of testicular,the activities of superoxide dismutase（SOD）,lactate dehydrogenase（LDH）,succinate dehydrogenase（SDH）,Na⁺-k⁺-ATP and Ca²⁺-Mg²⁺-ATP and the expression levels of antioxidant enzymes factor（SOD1,SOD2,GPx1,GPx4）,androgen receptors（AR）and apoptosis factors Bcl-x L of testes tissue were significantly reduced in model group（P<0.05）,the MDA content and the expression levels of inflammatory cytokines IL-β,TNF-αand pro-apoptotic cytokine Caspase 3 were significantly increased（P<0.05）.In addition,significant structural damage was observed in testicular tissue of mice by H&E staining;Compared with the model group,after treatment with curcumin（50,100 and 200 mg/kg）,the relative weights of testicular,the activities of superoxide dismutase（SOD）,lactate dehydrogenase（LDH）,succinate dehydrogenase（SDH）,Na⁺-k⁺-ATP and Ca²⁺-Mg²⁺-ATP and the expression levels of antioxidant enzymes factor（SOD1,SOD2,GPx1 GPx4）,androgen receptor AR and apoptosis factor Bcl-x L of testes tissue were significantly increased with the increase of the concentration of curcumin（P<0.05）,MDA content,the expression levels of inflammatory cytokines IL-1β,TNF-αand pro-apoptotic cytokine Caspase 3 were significantly decreased（P<0.05）,and testicular tissue morphological injury was significantly improved.CONCLUSIONS:Curcumin could effectively improve the formaldehyde-induced oxidative damage of testes tissue in mice and exert its antioxidant activity by inhibiting the excessive production of ROS and promoting the expression levels of antioxidant enzyme factors.Moreover,it has a certain protective effect on the functional damage of testicular sertoli cells induced by formaldehyde in mice,and its mechanism is related to the promotion of mitochondrial ATP synthesis,the effective regulation of expression levels of androgen receptor to improve its adhesion function,and the effective regulation of the expression levels of inflammatory and apoptosis-related factors.In conclusion,curcumin has a protective effect on formaldehyde-induced testicular injury in mice.