| Objective This study was designed to explore the effect of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase(MAPK) pathway on the spermatogenic cells apoptosis induced by heat stress.Methods Twenty-four male Sprague-Dawley rats(42day-old) were dividedinto four groups:sham operation, cryptorchid, cryptorchid + dissolvent, cryptorchid + SB203580. Unilateral cryptorchidism was surgically induced in the rats under pento-barbital anaesthesia: a midline abdominal incision was made and then the right testis was sutured to the abdominal wall after the gubernaculum was cut to prevent testis descent. The left testis remained in the scrotum and the right testis was displaced from the scrotum to the abdomen. The gubernaculums of the right testes in the sham operation group were cut before replaced into the scrotum. The rats of cryptorchid +dissolvent group and cryptorchid+SB203580 group were injected intraperitoneally dissolvent or SB203580(100μg/kg) respectively. The rats were sacrificed on the 7th days after operation. The morphology of spermatogenic epithelium in rats of every group was observed with light microscopy. The apoptosis of spermatogenic cells in the unilateral cryptorchidism was evaluated by TUNEL and FCM. The protein expression level of phosphorylating p38MAPK in testes were detected by Western blot and immunohistochemical assay accordingly.Results Administration of SB203580 could decrease spermatogenic cellsapoptosis of the cryptorchid testes, and it could significantly inhibit weight lose of the cryptorchid. In the spermatogenic epithelium of the sham operation group and the cryptorchid testes treated with SB203580, there were no phosphorylating p38MAPK expression which could be detected in the spermatogenic epithelium of the other two groups by immunohistochemical assay. Western Blot analysis showed the protein expression level of phosphorylating p38MAPK in the testes of the cryptorchid group... |
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