Systemic arterial hypertension leads to decreased semen quality and alterations in the testicular microcirculation in rats

Abstract

Arterial hypertension is a cardiovascular disease that leads to important systemic alterations and drastically impairs normal organ function over time. Hypertension affects around 700 million men of reproductive age and hypertensive men present increased risk for reproductive disorders, such as erectile dysfunction. However, the link between arterial hypertension and male reproductive disorders is associative at best. Moreover, many studies have reported associations between decreased male fertility and/or semen quality and alterations to general male health. In this study we aim to investigate the effect of systemic high blood pressure in sperm quality, sperm functional characteristics and testicular physiology in a rat model. Hypertensive rats presented altered testicular morphology – mainly vascular alterations and impaired testicular vasomotion. Hypertensive rats also presented decrease in sperm concentration, DNA integrity and increased percentages of sperm with dysfunctional mitochondria, intracellular superoxide anion activity and abnormal morphology. This study provides mechanistic insights by which arterial hypertension affects the testes, evidencing the testes as another target organ for hypertension as well as its impact on sperm quality.

Improvement Effect of Metformin on Female and Male Reproduction in Endocrine Pathologies and Its Mechanisms

“…It can be assumed that the arterial hypertension, typical for MetS and T2DM, negatively affects morphology of the seminiferous tubules and spermatogenesis. Using the rat models, it was shown that arterial hypertension, interfering with normal microcirculation of blood in the testes, led to the impaired sperm maturation [ 428 ].…”

Heterogeneity and Dynamics of Vasculature in the Endocrine System During Aging and Disease

“…In combination with the high oxygen consumption due to spermatogenesis demands, the testicular environment contains low oxygen levels. In line with this, rat and mouse testis show constitutive expression of the transcription factor hypoxia-induced factor-1 (HIF-1) that is stabilized under hypoxic conditions and regulates oxygen homeostasis (Powell et al, 2002;Lysiak et al, 2009;Colli et al, 2019). Hypertension has been shown to impair testicular vasomotion, alter vascular morphology and increase HIF-1 expression in rats, suggesting a drop of oxygen levels in hypertensive rat testes (Colli et al, 2019).…”

Sperm biology and male reproductive health

“…Elenkov et al, on the other hand, did observe that men who were treated by ICSI had a higher risk for being under treatment for hypertension or metabolic syndrome 15 . Interestingly, a mechanistic cause for hypertension, as it leads to testicular alteration, was later demonstrated by Colli et al 16 .…”