Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Chem Biol Interact. 2011 Feb 1;189(3):198-205. doi: 10.1016/j.cbi.2010.12.023. Epub 2010 Dec 30.
In the present study, lipopolysaccharide (LPS), as an immune modulator in male adult rats and alpha-lipoic acid (ALA), as a powerful biological antioxidant and anti-inflammatory, are examined to help understanding the role of the immune and redox perturbation in testicular dysfunction with a possible protection. A total of 60 male Swiss albino rats were divided into 5 groups (10/group) respectively as follows Saline, ALA-vehicle, ALA (200mg/kg), LPS (5mg/kg) started with 20 rats and LPS+ALA. Obtained data from previously reported study, in our laboratory, and from the present one revealed that LPS induced marked reductions in sperm's count, motility and resulted in deterioration of the testicular histological features. In addition, LPS decreased testicular reduced glutathione (GSH) level and lactate dehydrogenase isoenzyme-x (LDH-x) activity. However, it increased testicular levels of malondialdehyde (MDA), nitric oxide (NO) and 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine (8-HDG) in testicular DNA, along with increased serum IL-2 level. In contrast, rats pretreated with ALA showed almost complete normalization of all the tested parameters. In conclusion, LPS induced perturbation of the immune-testicular barrier as a result of redox imbalance with a subsequent testicular dysfunction. Pretreatment with ALA ameliorated all these effects by its immune-modulator and antioxidant mechanisms suggesting a protective role against male infertility in septic or severely infected patients.
在本研究中，脂多糖（LPS）作为雄性成年大鼠的免疫调节剂，以及α-硫辛酸（ALA）作为一种强大的生物抗氧化剂和抗炎剂，被研究用于帮助理解免疫和氧化还原扰动在睾丸功能障碍中的作用，以及可能的保护作用。总共 60 只雄性瑞士白化大鼠被分为 5 组（每组 10 只），分别为生理盐水、ALA 载体、ALA（200mg/kg）、LPS（5mg/kg）和 LPS+ALA。从我们实验室之前报道的研究和本次研究中获得的数据表明，LPS 导致精子数量、活力显著减少，并导致睾丸组织学特征恶化。此外，LPS 降低了睾丸还原型谷胱甘肽（GSH）水平和乳酸脱氢酶同工酶-x（LDH-x）活性。然而，它增加了睾丸丙二醛（MDA）、一氧化氮（NO）和睾丸 DNA 中的 8-羟基脱氧鸟苷（8-HDG）水平，同时血清 IL-2 水平升高。相比之下，用 ALA 预处理的大鼠几乎完全使所有测试参数正常化。总之，LPS 通过氧化还原失衡引起免疫-睾丸屏障的扰动，随后导致睾丸功能障碍。ALA 的预处理通过其免疫调节剂和抗氧化机制改善了所有这些作用，表明其在败血症或严重感染患者中具有预防男性不育的作用。
