Potential Beneficial Effects of Apelin-13 on Testicular Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury

Testicular ischemia-reperfusion (T I/R) injury leads to oxidative stress with excessive accumulation of reactive oxygen species in the tissue. This phenomenon has an important place in the pathophysiology of testicular torsion injury. In the presented study, it was aimed to reveal the prophylactic beneficial effects of apelin 13 (APE-13 ) on T I/R damage. Twenty-four male Sprague Dawley rats were randomly divided into four groups as sham, I/R, 10µg/kg APE-13 and 100µg/kg groups. I/R protocol and apelin 13 application doses were applied with reference to previous studies. At the end of the experiment, all rats were sacrificed and their testicular tissues were quickly removed. It was stored under appropriate conditions until biochemical analysis was performed. In the biochemical analysis of the tissues, it was determined that oxidative parameters and inflammatory cytokine levels increased and antioxidant levels decreased in the testicular tissue due to I/R. On the other hand, it was observed that these results changed significantly in the 10µg/kg APE-13 and 100µg/kg groups. Considering the presented data, it was revealed that the severity of T I/R-induced tissue damage was reduced when APE-13 was administered at doses of 10µg/kg and 100µg/kg.