Expression And Significance Of HIF-1α In Varicocele Rat Testis

Purpose: In this study we investigated hypoxia inducible factor-1αand vascular endothelial growth factor expression in an experimental model of varicocele in the rat testis and try to find out the pathophysiology of varicocele in male infertility.Materials and Methods: A total of 36 adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were investigated in 3 groups, namely varicocele group 1 (n=15), sham operated group 2 (n=11) and control group 3 (n=10). At 30 days after surgery was completed in groups 1 and 2 orchiectomy was performed in all rats. Histological findings in left testicles of rats from each group were compared. HIF-1αand VEGF expression was immunohistochemically studied in paraffin embedded sections of testis tissue. Data were analyzed using T test, X2 test, fisher's exact test and Speraman's rank correlation test for post hoc comparison.Results: the expression of HIF-1αand VEGF in left testes is significantly higher in varicocele group than sham-operated group or control group.Conclusions: The results of this study show that varicocele can lead to local tissue hypoxia in left testis and activate it's target gene. Maybe this is the reason that varicocele can damage the testes. Purpose: In this study we investigated hypoxia inducible factor-1αand inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) expression in an experimental model of varicocele in the rat testis and try to find out the pathophysiology of varicocele in male infertility. Materials and Methods: A total of 26 adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were investigated in 2 groups, namely varicocele group 1 (n=15) and sham operated group 2 (n=11). At 30 days after surgery was completed in groups 1 and 2 both orchiectomy was performed in all rats. Histological findings in the both testicles of rats from each group were compared. HIF-1αand iNOS expression was immunohistochemically studied in paraffin embedded sections of testis tissue. Data were analyzed using T test, X2 test, fisher's exact test and Speraman's rank correlation test for post hoc comparison. Results: the expression of HIF-1αand iNOS in both testes is significantly higher than sham-operated group.Conclusions: The results of this study show that varicocele can lead to local tissue hypoxia in both testis and activate it's target gene(eg iNOS ). Maybe this is the pathophysiology of varicocele which can damage the testes. The overabundance of NO in testis may associates with Leydig cell and iNOS.