The Effect Of Fructus Lycii And Radix Astragali On Function Of Sertoli Cells In Rat Testes In Vitro

Objective: Sertoli cell is a structural compoment of seminiferous tubules in testes with important functions for maintaining normal spermatogenesis. Besides providing support and nutrition to the spermatogenic cells, Sertoli cells secrete many factors such as androgen binding protein (ABP), inhinbin (INH), activin (ACT) and so on, to form and maintain the microenvironment for spermatogenesis. More and more researches have been proving that inhibin B (INH B) secreted by Sertoli cells is so far regarded as the best endocrine marker to evaluate spermatogenesis in the testes. Fructus Lycii and Radix Astragali are valuable Chinese traditional herbal medicines, which, as the drugs of invigorating the kidney and benefiting vital energy in concept of Chinese traditional medicine, have been used to treat and to improve reproduction of the males for a long time. There have been a few studies on the effects of Fructus Lycii and Radix Astragali on male reproductive system, but mostly restricted only on morphological aspect. So here we hope to investigate the effects of these Chinese traditional medicines on spermatogenesis at cytological and molecular levels by applying these herbal medicines to Sertoil cells of the testes in order to find out a new approach to regulation of...