Histomorphometric and Histologic Effect of Endurance Swimming on the Testis of Adult Wistar Rats

Exercise along with the desired effect on some physical systems may be associated with the disorder of other systems. Although endurance training is a "golden exercise" for general health, but based on the scientific studies, it can be associated with reproductive system disorders; the purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of endurance swimming on the histomorphometric indices of testis in adult male Wistar rats.

For this purpose, rats (N=10) were randomly divided into control (C) (n=5) and endurance swimming (ES) (n=5) groups. The rats in ES group were exposed to 45 minutes' endurance swimming, three sessions a week for 6 weeks. Forty-five hours after the last swim session, rats were euthanized, research ethics considered. Their testes were placed in 10% buffered formalin solution and sent to the laboratory for histomorphometric evaluations. Data were analysed using independent t-test at α=0.05.

Tubular differentiation indices (TDI) (p=0.001), cumulative coefficient (RI) (p=0.00), spermiogenesis index (SI) (p=0.00) and number of Sertoli cells (p=0.01) of ES group were significantly less than C group, but differences in Leydig cell parameters (p=0.45), testicular capsule thickness (p=0.07), tube diameter Spermatogenesis (p=0.92), sperm tube-forming epithelium height (p=0.117), number of spermatogenic tubes (p=0.51) and inner tube lumen diameter Spermatogenesis (p=0.29) were not significant. The histological profile of the testis of ES group showed severe spermatogenesis.

Endurance swimming protocol of this study can provoke reproductive and infertility disorders, and given the role of endurance activity in public health, especially cardiovascular health, complementary strategies should be considered to prevent the occurrence of such complications.