Ghrelin Improves Rat Sperm Kinematic Parameters During Abdominal Position of the Testis

Background: disruption of testicular function and arrest of spermatogenesis are the consequence of cryptorchidism in response to elevated temperature. objectives: this investigation was set to clarify the possible ghrelin efficacy in altering some sperm quality parameters upon experimentally-induced cryptor-chidism. methods: thirty male adult rats were scheduled for the study and were divided into three groups: group 1 was served as control-saline (cs), group 2 was designed as cryptorchidism-saline (crs), and group 3 was defined as cryptorchidism-ghrelin (crg). after surgically inducing cryptorchidism in groups 2 and 3, the researchers gave 10 nmol of ghrelin to crg rats for 7 consecutive days. five animals in each group were equally killed on days 3 and 7 after operation and their testes were taken for sperm evaluation. results: testicular weight, sperm forward progressive motility (fpm), functional membrane integrity (assessed by hos-test), and sperm concentration displayed slight changes after heating on day 3. however, abdominal position of the testes for 7 days caused a significant reduction in the percentages of hos-positive cells (p < 0.0001), fpm (p < 0.0001), and sperm concentration (p < 0.01). although a 30% decrease occurred in the testicular weight at this point, however, this reduction was not statistically significant. interestingly, hos-test and fpm percentages were significantly higher in the ghrelin-exposed animals compared to the crs group on day 7 (p < 0.05). however, ghrelin treatment had not considerable influence on sperm parameters by day 3. moreover, sperm concentration and testicular weight did not exhibit any changes either on day 3 or at day 7 upon ghrelin injection (p > 0.05). conclusions: indeed, this function of ghrelin could be attributed to its antioxidant properties and it may be implicated as a potential agent in attenuation of impaired spermatogenesis after cryptor-chidism.