Melatonin Effect on Immature Mouse Testicular Tissues, Vitrified-Thawed With Different Cryoprotectant Media

Freezing of the immature testis tissue and then its transplantation can be considered a major step in fertility preservation for young boys with cancer. The objective of this study was to investigate the antioxidant effects of melatonin on histological structure of seminiferous tubules that were vitrified-thawed with different cryoprotectant media. Male mice were randomly assigned to one of 10 experimental groups. Testes of 6-day-old BALB/c male mice pups were extracted and vitrified-thawed with different vitrification media with melatonin and without melatonin. Then, their testes were stained with haematoxylin-eosin. The result showed that supplementation of glycerol based media with melatonin has reduced injury to histological structure of seminiferous tubules in the 6-day-old male BALB/c mice pups testes (P = 0.004). It seem that melatonin due to its antioxidant properties, if added to glycerol based media, reduces the harmful effects of freezing-thawing process, and protects seminiferous tubules histological structure from oxidative injury.