Voluntary exercise improves spermatogenesis and testicular apoptosis in type 2 diabetic rats through alteration in oxidative stress and mir-34a/SIRT1/p53 pathway

Objective(s): This research was designed to demonstrate the impact of voluntary exercise on sperm parameters including sperm count, morphology, motility, viability, testicular apoptosis, oxidative stress, and the mir-34a/SIRT1/p53 pathway in type 2 diabetic rats. Materials and Methods: 32 Wistar male rats were separated into four groups: control (C), voluntary exercise (VE), diabetic (D), and diabetic rats that performed voluntary exercise (VED). To induce diabetes, animals were injected with streptozotocin (35 mg/kg) after receiving a high-fat diet. The testicular protein levels of SIRT1 and P53, miR-34a expression, MDA, GPx, SOD, catalase, and sperm parameters were evaluated. Results: Diabetes caused increased testicular MDA content, miR-34a expression, acetylated p53 protein expression, and the percent of immotile sperm (p Conclusion: It seems that voluntary exercise has significant positive impacts that can be employed to reduce the complications of type 2 diabetes in the testis of male rats.