Department of Pharmacology, Division of Vascular Biology, Hypertension Section, Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas, Universidade de São Paulo -ICB/USP, São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
Department of Surgery, Division of Urology, Universidade Federal de São Paulo - UNIFESP, São Paulo, Brazil.
Sci Rep. 2019 Jul 30;9(1):11047. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-47157-w.
Arterial hypertension is a cardiovascular disease that leads to important systemic alterations and drastically impairs normal organ function over time. Hypertension affects around 700 million men of reproductive age and hypertensive men present increased risk for reproductive disorders, such as erectile dysfunction. However, the link between arterial hypertension and male reproductive disorders is associative at best. Moreover, many studies have reported associations between decreased male fertility and/or semen quality and alterations to general male health. In this study we aim to investigate the effect of systemic high blood pressure in sperm quality, sperm functional characteristics and testicular physiology in a rat model. Hypertensive rats presented altered testicular morphology - mainly vascular alterations and impaired testicular vasomotion. Hypertensive rats also presented decrease in sperm concentration, DNA integrity and increased percentages of sperm with dysfunctional mitochondria, intracellular superoxide anion activity and abnormal morphology. This study provides mechanistic insights by which arterial hypertension affects the testes, evidencing the testes as another target organ for hypertension as well as its impact on sperm quality.
动脉高血压是一种心血管疾病，随着时间的推移会导致重要的全身改变，并严重损害正常器官功能。高血压影响到大约 7 亿处于生育年龄的男性，高血压男性的生殖障碍风险增加，如勃起功能障碍。然而，动脉高血压与男性生殖障碍之间的联系充其量只是关联。此外，许多研究报告了男性生育力和/或精液质量下降以及一般男性健康状况改变之间的关联。在这项研究中，我们旨在调查系统性高血压对精子质量、精子功能特征和睾丸生理学的影响大鼠模型。高血压大鼠的睾丸形态发生改变，主要是血管改变和睾丸血管运动受损。高血压大鼠的精子浓度、DNA 完整性下降，功能失调的线粒体、细胞内超氧阴离子活性和异常形态的精子百分比增加。这项研究通过动脉高血压影响睾丸的机制提供了深入的了解，证明睾丸是高血压的另一个靶器官，以及它对精子质量的影响。
