Ameliorating effects of exercise on disrupted epididymal sperm parameters in high fat diet-induced obese rats

OpenAlex İngilizce

Objective: Obesity causes male infertility problems and affectsthe sperm quality. Recent studies have shown that exercise haspositive effects on male fertility. The present study aimed to showthe effects of swimming exercise on the epididymal sperm number,motility and morphology in hight fat diet (HFD)-induced obeserats.Materials and Methods: Four experimental groups (n=8 ineach group) were formed. Standard (STD) and STD+Exercise(STD+EXC) groups were fed with standard rat diet (6% of caloriesas fat); HFD and HFD+Exercise (HFD+EXC) groups were fedwith high fat diet (45% of calories as fat) for 18 weeks. The ratsin STD+EXC and HFD+EXC groups were trained by swimmingsessions (1 h per day for 5 days a week) during the last 6 weeks ofthe experiment. The left caudal epididymis was prepared to evaluatethe number, motility and morphology of the spermatozoa. The rightepididymal samples were processed for histological evaluation.Results: Normospermic parameters were seen in STD andSTD+EXC groups. Sperm number and motility decreased andspermatozoa with abnormal morphology increased significantly inHFD group when compared with STD group. A large number ofspermatozoa in the epididymal duct lumen and regular morphologyof the fibromuscular connective tissue were observed in STDand STD+EXC groups. Most of the epididymal ducts consistedof decreased amount of spermatozoal accumulation in the HFDgroup. Degenerated pseudostratified columnar epithelium withvacuole formation were additional findings in this group. On theother hand, swimming exercise had an enhancement effect onsperm parameters with prominent spermatozoal accumulation inthe ducts of epididymis in HFD induced obese rats.Conclusion: This study shows that HFD-induced obesitydecreased the number and motility of spermatozoa, increasedabnormal spermatozoa and caused disrupted epididymalmorphology. We hypothesize that exercise enhanced HFD-inducedspermatogenic and epididymal damages by the regulation of scrotalheat and possible inhibition of oxidative damage in the epididymis.