Baicalin protects mouse testis from injury induced by heat stress

Heat stress has been documented to reduce reproductive performance of female animals through injury to germ cells, with few studies available in male animals. The objectives of this study were to evaluate protective effects of baicalin on testicular tissue damage of mice subjected to heat stress and its related mechanisms. In this experiment, A total of forty mice were divided into four groups, including control group (C), baicalin group (B), heat stressed group (H) and heat stress with baicalin treatment (H + B) group. Morphological changes, activities of antioxidant enzymes and apoptosis-related parameters in the mice testes tissue were monitored. The results showed that the process of spermatogenesis in mice testis was impaired and the cellular apoptosis increased due to acute heat stress at 41 °C. Interestingly, the tissue damage was alleviated with the significant (P < 0.05) increase in the activities of SOD, CAT and GSH-Px enzymes, decrease (P < 0.05) in MDA content and number of cellular apoptosis recorded in mice of H + B group compared with those in mice from H group. In addition, the Fas, FasL and P-JNK protein expressions were significantly (P < 0.05) increased; and apaf-1, caspase-3, -9 were slightly expressed in the H group, while there was no difference in Bcl-2 expression, compared with C, B and H + B groups. The above results clearly indicate that heat stress induces macroscopic/apoptotic and oxidative changes in the testicular tissue of mice; these changes are alleviated by Baicalin through increasing anti-oxidative enzyme activities and possibly through blocking Fas/FasL pathway.