Methanolic Extract of Stachys Schtschegleevii Im-proves Sperm Parameters in Type 2 Diabetic Rats by Re-duction of Oxidative Stress in Epididymis

Background: Approximately 70% of diabetic men experience some form of sexual dysfunction and infertility at some point in time. These patients tend to avoid diagnosis due to social stigma and use traditional medicine to improve their complica-tions. Our previous studies showed that Stachys schtschegleevii (SS) has anti-diabetic, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant ef-fects. This study was conducted to investigate the effect of SS on sperm parameter and oxidative stress status in epididymis of diabetic rats.Materials and Methods: Thirty adult male rats were divided into 6 groups including: control, diabetic, diabetic treated by glibenclamide and diabetic treated by 100, 200 and 300 mg/ kg methanolic extract of SS for 40 consecutive days by oral gavage. Type II diabetes was induced by high fat diet and low dose of streptozotocin (35 mg/kg). At the end of experiment, animals were euthanized and their left epididymis was removed and dissected in Ham s F10 and incubated at 37°C. Total count, motility, viability and morphology of sperm as well as trato-zoospermia (TZI) and sperm DNA fragmentation index (SDFI) were assessed according to the WHO standard meth ods. Right epididymis were rapidly homogenized and stored at -80 ºC to measure glutathione peroxidase (GPx), superoxide dismutase (SOD), malondialdehyde (MDA) and total antioxidant capacity (TAC). Data were statistically analyzed by SPSS using one-way ANOVA test and Tukey s post-hoc.Results: Results showed that high dose of SS could significant-ly increase total sperm count compare to diabetic group but all dose of SS could significantly improve sperm motility, viability and morphology and reduce TZI and SDFI in a dose dependent manner. Analysis of oxidative stress indices indicated that SS also reduced MDA level and increased GPx, SOD and TAC lev-el of epididymis in a dose dependent manner but this changes was significantly only in mid and high dose of SS com pared to diabetic group. Our results revealed that all effects of mid and high dose of SS were better than glibenclamide treated groups. Conclusion: Based on our results it can be concluded that ad-ministration of SS can be considered as a suitable protective strategy for improvement of infertility or subfertility complica-tion in diabetic males.

کلیدواژه ها:

Stachys Schtschegleevii ، Diabetes ، Male Infertility ، Sperm Analysis ، Oxidative Stress