Vitamin C attenuates detrimental effects of diabetes mellitus on sperm parameters, chromatin quality and rate of apoptosis in mice.

Objectives: The main goal was to examine the protective effects of vitamin C on sperm parameters, sperm chromatin condensation and apoptosis in experimentally-induced diabetic mice.

Study Design: 28 adult Syrian mice were divided into 4 groups. In Group1, the mice were diabetic that received a single dose of Streptozocin (STZ) (200mg/kg) intra-peritoneally (ip). Group 2 was included diabetic mice that received vitamin C (10mg/kg/daily, ip). Mice in group 3 were received vitamin C and group 4 was considered as control. After 35 days, sperm analysis was done accordingly. To asses sperm chromatin and DNA quality, we used aniline blue (AB), toluidine blue (TB), chromomycin A3 (CMA3), acridine orange (AO) and terminal transferase mediated deoxyuridine triphosphate biotin end labeling (TUNEL) tests.

Results: All of the sperm parameters (count, motility, morphology and viability) had significant reduction in diabetic mice but, the data showed a significant increase in all of the sperm parameters in diabetic+vitamin C when compared with diabetic and control animals (P<0.05). There were significant differences (P<0.001) between groups regarding to TB staining (48.8±5.92 vs 34.3±4.13), AO test (35.9±6.11 vs 20.8±2.89) and TUNEL test (39.42±7.18 vs 22.00±3.65) in diabetic and diabetic+vitamin C groups, respectively. Nevertheless, in CMA3 and AB staining assays, there were not any significant differences between different groups.

Conclusion: Vitamin C, as a potent antioxidant, can attenuate detrimental effects of diabetes mellitus on the sperm parameters, chromatin quality and apoptosis in an experimental model.