Protective roles of Rutin against restraint stress on spermatogenesis in testes of adult mice

In order to investigate the effects of Rutin against restraint stress, 50 adult male mice were divided into five groups: control, restraint stress (RS), and RS with 2 doses of Rutin treatments. Mice were restrained in a conical tube for 4 h daily and Rutin was injected intraperitoneally for 15 consecutive days. Restraint stress significantly decreases body weights, testis and epididymis weights, thymus weights, visceral fats, serum concentrations of testosterone, sperm counts, sperm motility and sperm viability, while it increases serum epinephrine levels, adrenal gland weights and abnormal sperms. In addition, restraint stress severely damages the testicular histoarchitecture and spermatogenesis. Stressed groups also showed broken seminiferous tubules, few spermatozoa in lumen, less population of Leydig cells between the interstitial spaces, spermiation arrest in stage I-III and degenerated population of round spermatids in the lumen; as well as missing cells in stages IV-VI. Furthermore, lumen sizes increased in stages VII, VIII, IX and X. Residual bodies increased in stages IV-VI, VII-VIII and vacuoles found in stages XI-XII after restraint stress. PARP1 signaling is involved in apoptosis. In this study, expressional levels of cleaved PARP1 and cleaved Caspase-3 are significantly increased in testes after restraint stress. We demonstrate that Rutin significantly ameliorates the side effects induced by restraint stress.