Abstract
Since autophagy was suspected to occur in the pathological situation of varicocele (VCL), we have attempted to confirm it here using a surgical model of varicocele-induced rats. Thirty Wistar rats were divided into three groups (varicocele/sham/control) and analyzed two months after the induction of varicocele. Testicular tissue sections and epididymal mature sperm were then monitored for classic features of varicocele, including disturbance of spermatogenesis, impaired testicular carbohydrate and lipid homeostasis, decreased sperm count, increased sperm nuclear immaturity and DNA damage, oxidative stress, and lipid peroxidation. At the same time, we evaluated the Atg7 protein content and LC3-II/LC3-1 protein ratio in testis and mature sperm cells, two typical markers of early and late cellular autophagy, respectively. We report here that testis and mature sperm show higher signs of autophagy in the varicocele group than in the control and sham groups, probably to try to mitigate the consequences of VCL on the testis and germ cells.
Highlights
Autophagy is considered to be a process conserved during evolution that plays an important role in physiological and pathological conditions
We evaluated the expression of Atg7, LC3-I, and LC3-II by Western blot according to the modified protocol of Foroozan-Broojeni et al [30]
Sperm cells were not seen in the lumen of some of the seminiferous tubules, indicating that spermatogenesis arrests occurred
Summary
Autophagy is considered to be a process conserved during evolution that plays an important role in physiological and pathological conditions. Autophagy contributes to reduce the risk of formation of toxic protein aggregates [1] and promotes cell survival [2, 3]. This catabolic process can be activated under various stress conditions such as oxidative stress [4], thermal stress [5, endoplasmic reticulum stress [6], hypoxia [7], and unbalanced diet [8]. At the cellular level, during autophagy, some of the cytoplasmic proteins and organelles are sequestered into double membrane vesicular formations called “autophagosomes” that fuse with the lysosomes to degrade their contents. The resulting simple molecules, including free fatty acids, amino acids, and nucleotides, are recycled and reused as an energy source by the cell [13]
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