The effect of moderate intensity running training on reproductive system alteration induced by acetyl salicylic acid (Aspirin) in adult Wistar rats

Abstract

Background: Acetyl salicylic acid (ASA) or Aspirin is one of the most widely used drugs in the world; one of its side effects is the male reproductive system alteration. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of moderate intensity aerobic exercise on ASA-induced reproductive system alteration in rats. Materials and Methods: In two stages, fifteen rats (N=15) were randomly divided into control (C, n=5), non-treatment (NT, n=5) and aerobic-treatment (AT, n=5) groups; the AT and NT groups used aspirin 12.5 mg/kg-daily/five weeks. The AT group ran at moderate intensity on a rodent-treadmill/four weeks, five sessions a week. Groups C and NT did not receive any intervention. Serum testosterone level, spermatogenesis indices and sperm parameters of rats were evaluated and the data were analyzed by one-way variance and Tukey post-hoc-test at alpha level 0.05 by SPSS. Results: Data statistical analysis showed that there was a significant difference between the groups in terms of serum testosterone level (P=0.02), sperm quantity (P=0.0001), viability (P=0.001), maturity (P=0.0001), sperm DNA fracture (P=0.002), TDI, SI and RI indices, tubule diameter (P=0.0001), tubular epithelium thickness (P=0.0001) and number of Leydig cells (P=0.003), but there was no significant difference between the groups in terms of sperm motility (P=0.07). Tukey post-hoc-test showed that these differences were between NT and AT groups, but no significant difference was observed between C and AT. Conclusion: It can be concluded that four-week moderate exercise helps accelerate the reproductive conditions recovery to just before taking acetyl salicylic acid (ASA) or Aspirin.

Keywords

• aerobic exercise
• acetyl salicylic acid
• aspirin
• testosterone
• reproductive system
• rat