Contemporaneous effects of diabetes mellitus and hypothyroidism on spermatogenesis and immunolocalization of Claudin-11 inside the seminiferous tubules of mice

BACKGROUND: Diabetes and hypothyroidism produce adverse effects on body weight and sexual maturity by inhibiting body growth and metabolism. The occurrence of diabetes is always accompanied with thyroid dysfunction. Thus, it is important to take hypo- or hyper-thyroidism into consideration when exploring the adverse effects caused by diabetes. Previous reports have found hypothyroidism inhibits testicular growth by delaying Sertoli cell differentiation and proliferation. Hence, by establishing a mouse model of diabetes combined with hypothyroidism, we provided evidence that poly glandular autoimmune syndrome affected testicular development and spermatogenesis. RESULTS: we mimicked polyglandular deficiency syndrome in both immature and prepubertal mice by induction of diabetes and hypothyroidism, which caused decreases in serum concentrations of testosterone and insulin like growth factor 1 (IGF-1). Such reduction of growth factor resulted in inhibition of testicular and epididymal development. Moreover, expressions of Claudin-11 were observed between Sertoli cells and disrupted in the testes of syndrome group mice. We also found reduced sperm count and motility in prepubertal mice. CONCLUSIONS: This mimicry of the diabetes and thyroid dysfunction, will be helpful to better understand the reasons for male infertility in diabetic-cum-hypothyroid patients. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12861-018-0174-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.