Effects of Vitamin-E treatment on CatSper genes expression and sperm quality in the testis of the aging mouse

BACKGROUND CatSper genes are a novel family of four sperm-specific calcium channels, which indicate testis-specific expression patterns. Despite the crucial role of CatSper genes in the male reproduction, very little is known about the factors that regulate their expression. OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of vitamin E treatment on the expression of CatSper 1 and CatSper 2 genes as well as sperm quality in the aged male mice. MATERIALS AND METHODS Twenty four 11-12 months old aged male mice and twenty four 2-3-months old young male mice were randomly divided into four groups. Control groups received no injection. The experimental groups of male mice were received intraperitoneal injection of 106 mg/kg vitamin E daily for 35 days. Left testis and cauda epididymides from each mouse were collected on the days 21, 28 and 35 following vitamin E treatment and were used for Real-Time PCR and immunohistochemistry. Also, sperm analysis was performed according to the WHO guidelines given for human sperm examination. Data were analyzed using SPSS software. RESULTS Administration of vitamin E improved sperm parameters in the aged as well as young adult male mice. In addition, the expression of CatSper genes increased following vitamin E treatment. Also, intensity of signal for CatSper1 and CatSper2 increased in the head and middle piece of sperm in experimental group as compared to those of control ones. CONCLUSION The vitamin E treatment significantly improved the sperm quality, especially in terms of sperm motility, count and morphology rate. Furthermore, CatSper genes expression could be up-regulated by the vitamin E treatment. This article extracted from Ph.D. thesis. (Shabnam Mohammadi).