Effects of pentoxifylline administration on histomorphological parameters of streptozotocin-induced diabetic rat testes

The effect of pentoxifylline (PTX) administration on histomorphological parameters of streptozotocin (STZ)-induced type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM) in male rat testes were evaluated. We randomly divided 40 male rats into the following four groups: group 1: control or normal glycemic (NG) rats; group 2 or NG rats that received only normal saline (NS), (NG+NS); group 3 or diabetic rats which were not treated by PTX (DM+vehicle solution (NS)); and group 4 which comprised diabetic rats treated with 50 mg/kg of PTX (DM+PTX). Type 1 DM was induced by intraperitoneal injection of STZ (55 mg/kg). Rats were held for 30 days after which the experimental group received PTX twice daily (25 mg/kg) or NS. After 14 days of treatment by PTX or NS, the left testes from all rats were extracted and prpared for histological study. Apoptotic cells, blood vessel density, and spermatogenesis were evaluated. Data were analyzed by ANOVA test. PTX-treated-diabetic rats showed a significant decrease in number of apoptotic cells and decrease in blood vessel density compared to the DM+NS rats. A significant increase in spermatogenesis was observed in the PTX-treated diabetic group, compared to the DM+NS groups. It was concluded that PTX administration to STZ-induced type 1 DM rats affected apoptotic cell number positively. Moreover, blood vessel density significantly decreased and improvements were observed in spermatogenesis.