Efficiency of Doxycycline in Mitigation of Epididymal Sperm Disorders Induced by Experimental Unilateral Testicular Ischemia-reperfusion in Mice

Ischemia-reperfusion injury arising from testicular torsion can result in bilateral testicular damages. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of doxycycline (DC) administration on epididymal sperm disorders following experimental unilateral testicular ischemia-reperfusion (IR) in mice.
Experiments were performed on five equal groups each comprising six adult male mice. Following anaesthesia, IR was induced by clamping left testicular vessels with an atraumatic microvascular clamp for 30 minutes in IR group. In IR group, in addition, mice received DC (2.5 mg/kg per day) intraperitoneally for 3 days starting from the day of induction of experimental IR. Vehicle-treated control group, sham-operated control group and DC-only treated group were also included. Ipsilateral and contralateral epididymal sperm characteristics were evaluated after 35 days.
Ischemia-reperfusion caused significant decreases in the both epididymides sperms concentration, viability and motility compared to the control group. Moreover, sperm cell apoptosis in both the ischemic and the contralateral epididymides and the percentage of sperm abnormality in ipsilateral epididymis increased significantly after IR. Doxycycline treatment attenuated all IR-induced negative changes in the above-noted parameters.
These findings provide evidence that DC treatment may have potentially protective effects against long-term reproductive injuries following unilateral testicular IR.