Research Paper Volume 8, Issue 1 pp 95—110
Alterations in oxidative, inflammatory and apoptotic events in short-lived and long-lived mice testes
- 1 Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental, CONICET, Vuelta de Obligado 2 Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina
- 2 Cátedra de Bioquímica Humana, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina
- 3 Departamento de Química Biológica, Instituto de Química y Fisicoquímica Biológicas, Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina
- 4 Geriatrics Research, Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, Southern Illinois University, Springfield, IL 62794, USA
- 5 Department of Medical Microbiology, Immunology and Cell Biology, School of Medicine, Southern Illinois University, Springfield, IL 62794, USA
Received: October 12, 2015 Accepted: January 17, 2016 Published: January 23, 2016
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.100875How to Cite
Abstract
Aged testes undergo profound histological and morphological alterations leading to a reduced functionality. Here, we investigated whether variations in longevity affect the development of local inflammatory processes, the oxidative state and the occurrence of apoptotic events in the testis. To this aim, well-established mouse models with delayed (growth hormone releasing hormone-knockout and Ames dwarf mice) or accelerated (growth hormone-transgenic mice) aging were used.
We hereby show that the testes of short-lived mice show a significant increase in cyclooxygenase 2 expression, PGD2 production, lipid peroxidation, antioxidant enzymes expression, local macrophages and TUNEL-positive germ cells numbers, and the levels of both pro-caspase-3 and cleaved caspase-3. In contrast, although the expression of antioxidant enzymes remained unchanged in testes of long-lived mice, the remainder of the parameters assessed showed a significant reduction.
This study provides novel evidence that longevity confers anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant and anti-apoptotic capacities to the adult testis. Oppositely, short-lived mice suffer testicular inflammatory, oxidative and apoptotic processes.