Effects of endurance training on the serum level of sex hormones and sperm parameters after diabetic induction by streptozotocin-nicotinamide

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of endurance training on the serum levels of sex hormones and sperm parameters in the induced diabetic rats by Streptozotocin-Nicotinamide.
In this experimental study, 36 male Wistar rats in the weight range of 200±48 g, assigned randomly in three groups: Healthy control, diabetic control and diabetic edurance training. For diabetic induction, intraperitoneal injection of nicotinamide solution (120 mg/kg) and Streptozotocin (STZ) solution (65 mg/kg) method was used after 12 hours of food starvation. One week after injection of STZ, nicotinamide solution, the endurance training protocol was performed for ten weeks and 24 hours after the last training session, left epididymis of the rats was collected for studying sperm parameters and blood serum samples to evaluate sex hormones. Data were analyzed using one-way ANOVA and Turkey’s Post Hoc test at the level of P Ten weeks of resistance training caused a significant decrease in blood glucose in the endurance training group in comparison to the diabetic group (P=0.013). Also, endurance training in the endurance training group led to a significant increase in the serum levels of testosterone (P=0.000) LH (P=0.002) and FSH (P=0.029 in comparison to the diabetic control group. In addition, it was not observed no significant difference in the endurance training group compared to the health control group in the sperm parameters such as sperm count (P=0.065), and normal morphology (P=0.067).
It seems endurance training can improve sperm parameters, including sperm count and normal morphology through increasing the serum level of testosterone hormones, LH and FSH in rats with Type 2 diabetes mellitus.