The effect of Urtica dioica in combination with endurance training on testicular spermatogenic factors in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats

Today, diabetes is a major health problem with an increasing prevalence in men. It has been stated that high glucose leads to increased oxidative stress and apoptosis in testicular cells and causes testicular cell death and infertility. This study was conducted to investigate and determine the effect of nettle hydroalcoholic extract and endurance exercises on testicular tissue and spermatogenesis factors in streptozotocin (STZ)-diabetic male rats. In this experimental study, 40 albino rats weighing 200-220 grams were randomly divided into 5 groups: control-healthy (HC), nettle-diabetes (DG), exercise-diabetes (DT, nettle-exercise), diabetes (DTG), and control diabetes (DC). Endurance training was performed for 6 weeks according to the protocol. At the same time, rats of DG and DTG groups received nettle hydroalcoholic extract at a dose of 45 mg per kg of body weight. After 6 weeks, the testes were removed and stained with H&E technique. In the DTG and the DG groups, both spermatogenesis index (SI) and repopulation index (RI) were higher compared to the DT group and were close to the results of the healthy control group. Also, the histopathology of the testis in these two groups showed a higher improvement compared to the DT group and similar results were obtained with the results of the HC group. The present study showed that diabetes has destructive effects on spermatogenesis and testicular tissue and administration of nettle and endurance exercises together can protect spermatogenic cells in seminiferous tubules from the harmful effects of diabetes by improving SI and RI percentages.