Cross-talk between ER stress and mitochondrial pathway mediated adriamycin-induced testicular toxicity and DA-9401 modulate adriamycin-induced apoptosis in Sprague–Dawley rats

BACKGROUND: DA-9401 was prepared as a mixture of Chinese medicinal herb extracts from roots of Morinda officinalis How (Rubiaceae), outer scales of Allium cepa L. (Liliceae) and seeds of Cuscuta chinensis Lamark (Convolvulaceae). The present study was designed to investigate the possible protective role of DA-9401 in adriamycin (ADR)-induced testicular toxicity associated with oxidative stress, endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, and apoptosis. METHODS: Fifty healthy 8-week-old male Sprague–Dawley rats were equally divided into five groups. The first CTR group was treated with normal saline 2 ml/day by gavage. The second was treated with DA-100 (DA-9401 100 mg/kg/day). The third (ADR) group received ADR (2 mg/kg/once a week) intraperitoneally, while the combination of ADR and DA-9401 was given to the fourth ADR + DA-100 (100 mg/kg/day p.o) group and fifth ADR + DA-200 (200 mg/kg/day p.o) group. At the end of the 8-week treatment period, body weight, reproductive organ weights, fertility rate, pups per female were recorded, and serum were assayed for hormone concentrations. Tissues were subjected to semen analysis, histopathological changes, interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), oxidative stress markers and expression levels of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress markers, apoptosis markers, tight junction protein markers, steroidogenic acute regulatory protein (StAR), cation channel of sperm (CatSper) and glycogen synthase kinase-3 (GSK-3) by western blot. RESULTS: DA-9401 administration to ADR-treated rats significantly decreased serum luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) levels, interleukin-6, TNF-α, MDA level, ROS/RNS level, ER stress response protein levels, tunnel positive cells, cleaved caspase-3, and Bax/Bcl2 ratio. Moreover, pretreatment with DA-9401 significantly increased body weight, reproductive organ weights, fertility rate, pups per female, Johnsen’s score, spermatogenic cell density, sperm count and sperm motility, serum testosterone concentration, testicular superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase, glutathione peroxidase (GPx), tight junction protein markers, star protein level, CatSper, and GSK-3 level. CONCLUSIONS: ADR treatment can markedly impair testicular function and induce testicular cell death presumably by causing significant changes in oxidative stress, ER stress, and mitochondrial pathway. DA-9401 exerts beneficial effects against oxidative stress, ER stress, and mitochondria-mediated cell death pathway in testis tissue by up-regulating expression levels of tight junction protein markers, steroidogenic acute regulatory protein, GSK-3 alpha, and cation channels of sperm. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12935-019-0805-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.