Voluntary exercise improves spermatogenesis and testicular apoptosis in type 2 diabetic rats through alteration in oxidative stress and mir-34a/SIRT1/p53 pathway

This research was designed to demonstrate the impact of voluntary exercise on sperm parameters including sperm count, morphology, motility, viability, testicular apoptosis, oxidative stress, and the mir-34a/SIRT1/p53 pathway in type 2 diabetic rats. 32 Wistar male rats were separated into four groups: control (C), voluntary exercise (VE), diabetic (D), and diabetic rats that performed voluntary exercise (VED). To induce diabetes, animals were injected with streptozotocin (35 mg/kg) after receiving a high-fat diet. The testicular protein levels of SIRT1 and P53, miR-34a expression, MDA, GPx, SOD, catalase, and sperm parameters were evaluated. Diabetes caused increased testicular MDA content, miR-34a expression, acetylated p53 protein expression, and the percent of immotile sperm (p It seems that voluntary exercise has significant positive impacts that can be employed to reduce the complications of type 2 diabetes in the testis of male rats.