Vardenafil Reduces Testicular Damage Following Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury in Rats

• Main Authors: Bulent Erol, Husnu Tokgoz, Volkan Hanci, Sibel Bektas, Bulent Akduman, Faruk Yencilek, Gorkem Mungan, Aydin Mungan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2009-07-01
• Series: Kaohsiung Journal of Medical Sciences
• Subjects: ischemia reperfusion; testes torsion; vardenafil
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1607551X09705303
• ISSN: 1607-551X

We investigated the effect of intraperitoneal vardenafil (1 mg/kg) administration during an ischemic period in a rat model of testicular torsion/detorsion (T/D). Twenty-one adult Wistar rats were equally randomized into a control group, a T/D group and a vardenafil group. The control group was designed to collect basal values for biochemical and histopathological parameters. The T/D group underwent testicular torsion for 1 hour. The vardenafil group received vardenafil (1mg/kg) intraperitoneally at 30 minutes after torsion. All rats were sacrificed 4 hours after reperfusion to evaluate the tissue levels of malondialdehyde and total antioxidant status. Germ cell apoptosis was evaluated using the apoptosis protease activating factor 1 antibody in all groups. The expressions of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (NOS) and inducible NOS were also assessed in both testes of all rats. The malondialdehyde levels in the T/D group were significantly higher than in the control and vardenafil groups. There were also significant decreases in total antioxidant status in the T/D group compared with the control and vardenafil groups. Vardenafil treatment significantly reduced apoptosis protease activating factor 1, endothelial NOS and inducible NOS levels in the vardenafil group compared with the T/D group. Administration of 1 mg/kg vardenafil during testicular torsion decreased ischemia/reperfusion cellular damage. Our results indicate that the reduction in oxidative stress by vardenafil may play a major role in its cytoprotective effects.