Testicular tissue nitric oxide and thiobarbituric acid reactive substance levels: evaluation with respect to the pathogenesis of varicocele

The aim of the present study is to evaluate tissue nitric oxide (NO) and thiobarbituric acid reactive substance (TBARS) levels in testicular tissue, and to determine their relationship with seminal parameters in order to explain possible effects on varicocele pathophysiology.Ten adult male Wistar rats at 8 weeks old underwent partial left renal vein ligation. A sham operation was performed on control rats in a second group of another ten rats. All animals were killed 4 weeks after surgery. The testes were removed and histological changes were observed by light microscopy with haematoxylin and eosin stain on half of each testis. The rest of testis was used for the evaluation of testicular tissue NO and TBARS levels. Epididymal aspirated seminal plasma was used for semen analysis and morphological analysis was carried out according to Kruger’s criteria. Statistical analysis was performed by using Mann-Whitney U-tests and Spearman rank correlations between the two groups for NO and TBARS levels and for seminal parameters. Testicular tissue NO and TBARS levels (mean±SEM) were 62.8±10.1 μmol/g protein and 4.7±0.3 nmol/g protein in group 1. These parameters were 16.9±2.2 μmol/g protein and 3.1±0.2 nmol/g protein in the group 2 controls. There were significant differences between these parameters (P _NO=0.000, P _TBARS=0.001). Although a positive and significant correlation between testicular tissue NO and TBARS levels was found (r _s =0.739, P=0.014), there was only a strong negative correlation between NO levels and sperm motility in group 1 (r _s =−0.815, P=0.004). We found that this effect of NO on sperm motility was independent from TBARS levels after regression analysis (r ²=-0.687, β=0.825, P=0.034). Although there were statistically significant differences in seminal parameters between the two groups, there was no difference between them in the histopathological examination. We found that sperm motility was significantly related to testicular tissue NO levels only. Thus, we suggest that NO is an important mediator in the pathogenesis of varicocele. TBARS and other substances have been effective via NO pathways.