Atorvastatin mitigates testicular injuries induced by ionizing radiation in mice

Radiotherapy in patients with pelvis malignancy causes testes irradiation and resulted in testicular damages. Atorvastatin (ATV) in the low-dose is considered as antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. This experimental study was investigated protective effects of ATV on irradiation-induced testicular injury. Sixty male balb/c mice were randomly divided into 6 groups: 1: control, 2: irradiated (IR), 3, 4 and 5: IR plus ATV (10, 20 and 50 mg/kg), 6: only ATV (50 mg/kg). The ATV treated groups were received ATV for 7 days via oral gavage before IR. Irradiated groups exposed to 2 Gy whole body X-ray on day 8. Biochemical, histological and immunohistological parameters were evaluated for radioprotective effect of ATV. In the ATV pretreatment in irradiated mice, MDA levels were significantly decreased compared with the IR group. The effect of all three doses of ATV caused reduced MDA level, but ATV to dose of 50 mg/kg had more effect than other doses of ATV. Significant decrease in the concentration of testosterone was observed in only irradiated mice compared with the ATV plus irradiated. In addition, the histological examination showed Johnsen Score in the IR group was lower compared to ATV pretreated groups. ATV significantly reduced caspase-3 immunoreactivity induced by irradiation. The results from this study suggest that ATV at low dose has a protective effect against irradiation-induced testicular damage. This result provides a new indication of ATV for protection of testis during radiation therapy in treatment of cancer patients.