Effects of activation of ALDH2 by ethanol in testis injury of type 2 diabetic rats / 中国药理学通报

ABSTRACT

Aim To observe the effects of activation of aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 ( ALDH2 ) by ethanol on testis injury of type 2 diabetic rats. Methods Type 2 diabetic rats model were established by high-fat diet combined with low-dose streptozotocin ( STZ ) injec-tions. After the success of modeling, the rats were ran-domly divided into 3 groups ( n =6 ) normal control group (NC), type 2 diabetes group (T2DM) and eth-anol+type 2 diabetes group (EtOH+T2DM). Rats of EtOH + T2DM were treated with low-dose ethanol, then rats of NC and T2 DM were given normal diet for 8 weeks. After 8 weeks, the levels of the fasting blood glucose ( FBG ) , glycosylated hemoglobin ( HbA1 c ) and testosterone were tested, and the ratio of testis weight to body weight ( TW/BW ) was calculated. Morphological changes of testis tissue were observed by optical microscope. The levels of ALDH2 mRNA and transforming growth factorβ1 ( TGF-β1 ) mRNA in tes-tis tissue were measured. The expression of TGF-β1 in testis tissue was observed by immunohistochemical stai-ning, then the positive rate of TGF-β1 was calculated. Results Compared with NC, the levels of FBG, HbA1 c and TW/BW increased significantly and the level of testosterone decreased significantly in T2DM. The morphological observation showed that some semi-niferous tubules atrophied, spermatogenic cells de-creased and arrangemented loosely, Leydig cells de-creased in testicular interstitial. The level of ALDH2 mRNA in testis tissue decreased significantly, and the level of TGF-β1 mRNA and the positive rate of TGF-β1 in testis tissue increased significantly. However, compared with T2DM, the levels of FBG, HbA1c and TW/BW decreased, and the level of testosterone in-creased and the damage of testis tissue was attenuated in EtOH+T2DM. The level of ALDH2 mRNA in testis tissue increased significantly, and the level TGF-β1 mRNA and the positive rate of TGF-β1 in testis tissue decreased significantly. Conclusion Activating AL-DH2 can protect testis in type 2 diabetic rats, which may be related to the downregulation of TGF-β1 ex-pression.