Evaluation of the Effects of Rapamycin Treatment on Antioxidant Enzyme Changes and AgNOR in Testicular Torsion

Objective:Testicle torsion/detorsion cause ischemia. Rapamycin has immune suppressive and antioxidant defense mechanisms. Nucleolar-organizing regions(NORs) are loops of ribosomal DNA. Methods: To evaluate mean AgNOR number and total AgNOR area/total nuclear area(TAA/TNA) ratio and the relation between these proteins and rapamycin in the Torsion/Detorsion process of testes. The six groups as control, sham, early and late torsion-detorsion (ETD<D) groups, and early and late rapamycin treatment groups (ETD+R<D+R) were included. The TAA/TNA and mean AgNOR number of testes cells and biochemical analysis of GPx, SOD, and TBARS activities were detected. Results: Significant differences were detected among the groups for mean AgNOR number and TAA/TNA(p<0.05). For both mean AgNOR number and TAA/TNA, significant differences were found between control and ETD, between control and ETD+R, between control and LTD, between control and LTD+R. Also, a statistically significant relationship between both mean AgNOR numbers and TAA/TNA of testes cells and all the antioxidant enzymes (SOD, TBARS, and GPX) were detected(p<0.05). Conclusion: We may obtain information about the levels and duration of testes injury considering the levels of these proteins. Thus it can be said that these proteins may be used in the development of new and more effective therapeutic approaches to prevent the negative effects of T/D injury.